| 1. Building An On-demand Beauty Services Platform In Bangladesh With Armin Zaman Khan, Founder and CEO, Romoni
Armin Zaman Khan is the founder and CEO of Romoni, an on-demand beauty services startup based in Dhaka that offers on-demand salon, makeup, spa, and bridal services. Founded in 2016 as a simple Facebook page, over the past few years, Romoni has evolved into an independent platform and a team of 12 people. |
| 2. Distributor or Producer: What’s your startup choice?
In a world where distribution is going to be controlled by 5-6 top companies, you need to choose carefully what you are going to be. |
| 3. The Making Of Benchmark, Future of Communication, and Life With Ashraf Kaiser, Managing Director, Benchmark Limited
Ashraf Kaiser founded Benchmark in 2001 and has successfully built it into a leading communication company in Dhaka. Under his leadership, Benchmark has expanded beyond Bangladesh to Nepal and successfully diversified the business into multiple verticals. |
| 4. Public Bus Ticketing Startup Jatri Raises Investment From Adventure Capital
Adventure Capital, a frontier markets-focused venture capital fund founded by Fahim Saleh, announced yesterday that it has made an undisclosed pre-seed investment in Jatri |
| 5. Bdjobs Launches Overseas Jobs Site Bdeshjobs In Collaboration With IOM
Bdjobs.com, the country’s largest online job portal, has introduced a new independent jobs site for overseas jobs in Bangladesh aptly named Bdeshjobs. |
| 6. Telenor And Axiata To Combine Asian Operations In A Mega Merger
Telenor Group and Axiata Group Berhad are in discussions regarding a potential non-cash combination of their telecom and infrastructure assets in Asia (MergeCo), in which Telenor would take a majority stake |
| 7. Grameenphone Launches A Co-branded Smartphone With Maximus
Grameenphone Ltd., in partnership with Maximus, has unveiled the co-branded Maximus P7 Plus for the Bangladesh market to further enable customers to avail 4G services. |
| 8. Is Freelancing The Future Of Employment?
Today, freelancers represent 35% of the United States workforce. In the European Union, the rate is 16.1%. Both figures demonstrate the same global trend: from creative entrepreneurs to those paid by the task, freelancing is on the rise worldwide. |
| 9. An Economic Case For Reducing VAT Rate On Supershops
Supershops, which brings all household necessities under one rooftop, started its humble journey in the late nineties and expanded rapidly in the next decade. The number of supershops back in 2001 was as low as 5. Thanks to rapid urbanization, by 2018 the number has rocketed to 150++. Even though the number has increased, the growth of this sector has declined in recent years in terms of revenue earning, the amount of VAT (value added tax) paid and employment. It appears that the slowing down of the growth of this sector is associated with the increase in the rate of VAT in recent years, which has led to a decrease in the growth of consumers. |
| 10. What’s Next For GEEKY Social: An Interview with Md Saimum Hossain, Co-founder and Head of Business, GEEKY Social
Saimum Hossain is the Co-founder and Head of Business of Dhaka-based digital marketing company GEEKY Social. GEEKY is one of the earliest digital marketing companies in Dhaka. Over the past few years, it has experienced a generous growth, expanded beyond digital and to verticals like training and introduced multiple new products. The company is now approaching its next phase of transition. |
