Founder-focused Accelerator Program BYLC Ventures is Accepting Applications from Startups for Cohort 2

BYLC Ventures is accepting applications from startups for the Cohort 2 of its accelerator program. The program will take place in Dhaka from July–November 2020.

• If you want to apply, submit your application online by March 31, 2020. 

Details: BYLC Ventures is a six months long accelerator program launched by Bangladesh Youth Leadership Center (BYLC), Bangladesh’s first leadership institute. The program “fund Bangladesh’s most promising founders, hone their leadership capabilities, strengthen their business acumen, and help validate their big ideas as they transition into investable businesses.” The program offers a host of facilities to selected startups: 

• Seed funding up to BDT 8 lacs for equity of 8%
• Co-working space for one year 
• Training for six months on leadership, business building and becoming the founder who succeeds based on a founder-focused curriculum 
• Networking and mentorship opportunities with industry leaders, investors, founders, and stakeholders 
• Legal, accounting, and other hands-on business building support
• Opportunity to receive scale-up funding up to BDT 20 lacs 
• Currently, four companies from the BYLC Venture first cohort are going through the program. You can learn about the BYLC Ventures cohort one here.

Why it matters: Supports for early-stage startups remain scant in Bangladesh. Whereas building a successful startup depends a lot on access finance, support, mentorship and knowledge, the number of incubator and accelerator programs remain few and far between in Bangladesh.

BYLC Ventures, a relatively young accelerator program aimed at supporting Bangladeshi founders, says that the program is intentionally designed in a founder-focused manner. The program emphasizes a lot on its ‘other benefits’ along with the seed money it offers and rightly so.

While capital is critical for the success of startups, access to mentorship, right knowledge, right network, right education and training, and right kind of support dictate a lot of what ultimately happens to a startup. In fact, often mentorship, access to network and market play an outsized role in dictating success or failure of an early-stage venture.

To that end, BYLC Ventures claims that it has designed a program and a curriculum that not only pay attention to money. At the same time, it pays a lot more attention to other important supports an early-stage venture requires such as accounting support, legal support, mentorship, access to network, etc. Similarly, when paying attention to the social impact of a company, the program puts equal importance on the profitability and sustainability of the ventures it supports. 

Bottom line: If you are an early-stage founder and looking for a program that would “set you up for success”, BYLC Ventures claims that you should apply for the program. You can find the application form here.