Bangladeshi edtech startup Interactive Cares has been selected for the latest cohort of SuperCharger Ventures, a London-based ed-tech-focused virtual accelerator program run by cross-border venture capital firm SuperCharger Ventures. Interactive Cares is the first Bangladeshi startup to get into the SCV accelerator program. SCV announced the selected startups for its 6th cohort today.
SuperCharger Ventures Cohort 6.0 is the sixth edition of the accelerator program offered by SuperCharger Ventures to scale Seed to Series A startups. The program is designed to provide funding, mentorship, resources, and networking opportunities to help these startups grow and succeed.
Started in 2017, SuperCharger Ventures accelerator program runs for 12 weeks and includes workshops, pitch practice sessions, Demo Day, and one-on-one meetings with mentors, investors, and industry experts.
Cohort startups will receive up to $270,000 in investment and access to SuperCharger Ventures' network of investors, mentors, and corporate partners. The program said Cohort 6.0 Accelerator received over 300 applications from startups based in Asia, Europe, and North America and finally selected 6 startups from Singapore, Poland, Bangladesh, Norway, and the United Kingdom.
The startups selected for Cohort 6 include:
Interactive Cares is the only startup from Bangladesh in the cohort and the first Bangladeshi startup to get into the SCV accelerator program.
Interactive Cares is a Dhaka-based edtech company that operates at the intersection of skills development, select test preparation, and competitive exams. The company describes itself as a “one-stop virtual Ed-tech platform for creating employability through courses, career paths, and master classes.”
Founded in 2020, the company says it has over 300,000 registered learners on its platform. The company creates online courses across four segments: Career Paths (Web Development, Digital Marketing, etc.), Higher Studies (GRE, IELTS preparation, etc.), Academia (IBA MBA Admission, ISSB, etc.), and Skill Development (Graphic Design, AutoCAD, Coding, etc.).
Along with offering excellent online courses, Interactive Cares has been focusing on addressing the employability and skill gap challenges in the market. The company has been working on building partnerships with companies across sectors to ensure placement for its students from select courses, which is unique among the ed-tech startups in Bangladesh.
Interactive has so far raised $150,000 in investment in pre-seed.
SuperCharger Ventures runs a 3-month accelerator program focused on edtech that provides startups access to clients, funding, and mentorship. The program also helps selected companies to “accelerate growth and expand internationally over the course of the program.”
Designed for Seed to Series A companies, the program invests up to $270,000 per startup joining the accelerator program.
SuperCharger Ventures announced its cohort 6th on March 13th and selected 6 companies out of several hundred applications it received.
“We choose startups that are typically between Seed and Series A and are looking at international expansion within Europe, the Middle East, and Asia,” writes the program on its website. “Therefore, they've already validated market fit and are looking to expand overseas via our network or our expertise. We will happily work with companies that are outside of this range. We've worked with companies in the Pre-Seed stage but also Series-B+ earning over $5m in revenue and over 30 employees.”
The program is run completely online, remotely. “We are running cohorts remotely, therefore, office hours, workshops, demo days, and other activities all take place over video conferencing, as well as our platform on Circle.so,” SCV writes on its website. “Typically, we ask around 4 hours of a founders '/teams' time per week with 2 hours per week of workshops and another 1-2 hours that are sprints to align our team and yours. The key difference with the SCV Accelerator is that we act as an extension of your team and therefore it's important for us to align with you so we can execute and bring your future-forward.”
Selected companies become eligible for up to $270,000 investment. From the SCV website: “We are investing up to $270k in each of our Accelerator startups.”
This is, however, not the first time SuperCharger Ventures is doing an accelerator program. Previously, the company ran a fintech-focused accelerator program that backed 49 companies. In a 2021 interview with TechCrunch, SCV co-founder Janos Barberis said, “the pivot from one booming sector to another comes from fintech saturation.”
Bangladeshi startups have become a regular presence in regional accelerator programs. As I’ve written before in the article: regional accelerator programs have become key players in Bangladesh’s growing startup ecosystem “Several regional and global incubator and accelerator programs have come to play an important role in Bangladesh’s fast-growing startup ecosystem. Programs like Accelerating Asia, Iterative, and Surge have supported and funded a good number of Bangladeshi startups over the last several years.”
These programs have helped Bangladeshi startups to attract greater attention from regional investors and stakeholders. As Dhaka's startup ecosystem grows, more companies will go to these international programs for access to early capital, know-how, and network.
Interactive Cares getting into the SCV accelerator program opens new doors for Bangladeshi startups.
Update on 14th March 2023: This article has been updated with new information.
