Most of us have the experience of the hassle of booking tickets offline. That frustrating moment when you find that all tickets have sold out, after standing in the queue for hours, is enough to ruin your day or even week.
To resolve this problem Maliha M. Quadir founded Shohoz, a platform to buy tickets online, in 2014. Maliha Quadir, an alumnus of Smith College and Harvard University, worked at some of the top organizations including Morgan Stanley, Standard Chartered, Nokia, and Vistaprint, spanning multiple countries, before pursuing her lifelong dream of founding her own company. Maliha Quadir started working on building Shohoz towards the end of 2013. In 2014, Shohoz started its journey in Bangladesh.
In the beginning, users were only able to buy bus tickets through Shohoz. The company quickly expanded and added other tickets including launch tickets, movie tickets.
Shohoz scaled up its service by launching on-demand ride-hailing service in Dhaka in March 2018. In October of the same year, Shohoz launched its food delivery service in Dhaka.
In 2018, Shohoz raised US$15M in funding from a host of investors including Golden Gate Ventures of Singapore.
In 2019, Shohoz announced that it has secured an undisclosed amount of funding in a round led by Vostok New Ventures, a Swedish investment firm, Partech Ventures, Heritas Venture Funds, Cypress Capital, Tekton Ventures, and participated by existing backer Golden Gate Ventures.
On 16 May 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Shohoz launched Shohoz Health, a digital healthcare service providing video consultation from health experts and on-demand medicine delivery. The company claims to have over 100 doctors from top hospitals on the platform and over 100 pharmacies.
Over the years, Shohoz has evolved into one of the critical consumer tech companies in Bangladesh.
The Story Behind Shohoz: An Interview With Maliha M. Quadir
In this interview, Shohoz Founder and Managing Direct Maliha M Quadir tells the story behind Shohoz, what makes Shohoz tick, what’s going on at one of the most important tech startups in Dhaka, and what is next for Shohoz.
Shohoz Raises $15M In Funding || TechCrunch
In 2018, Shohoz raised US$15M in funding from a host of investors including Golden Gate Ventures of Singapore.
“It’s in my mind but there’s so much to do in Bangladesh,” Maliha Quadir told TechCrunch. “In Bangladesh, you can really make an impact — it’s a green field.”
The Evolution of Shohoz: An Interview With Maliha M Quadir, Founder and Managing Director, Shohoz
“We might evolve as a product and go beyond these verticals. That is in the future and I think that’s the case with any growing entity.” Maliha Quadir told Future Startup, “You see an opportunity and synergy and you go for it. For now, however, we know this far that we are building a platform around logistics, transportation, and fintech.”
Shohoz Launches "Shohoz Health" to provide health care services amid the COVID-19 pandemic
Apart from its Shohoz Food, this is the first time Shohoz is launching a service outside of transportation and delivery amid the pandemic. Shohoz’s main ride-hailing and transportation-related businesses remain shutdown amid the pandemic and subsequent lockdown. The new initiative into healthcare could offer a viable opportunity for Shohoz.
Shohoz Founder and CEO Maliha M Quadir on how the internet has transformed our lives and work and enabled individuals to access resources and pursue possibilities and opportunities that were hard to access before, her first experience with the power of the internet, her work at Shohoz, how Shohoz has evolved into a critical consumer tech company in Bangladesh, Shohoz’s operations in transportation, healthcare, grocery, ticketing, and food delivery and how these essential services have empowered consumers amid the pandemic and much more.
In an all-encompassing interview with Future Startup, Ms. Maliha has offered practical lessons on entrepreneurship and venture building that aspiring entrepreneurs can use in building their own businesses.
