Startup Bangladesh Limited, the flagship venture capital company of the ICT Division announced that it has invested BDT 1 crore in Alice Labs, a leading global SaaS from Bangladesh. Alice Lab's flagship product MyAlice is a unified social commerce and messaging platform empowering online merchants to convert every customer interaction into revenue. An agreement was signed recently between the organizations in Dhaka.
During the Signing of the agreement MD Shamsul Arefin, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Startup Bangladesh & Secretary of the ICT division, Managing Director of Startup Bangladesh Sami Ahmed, Head of Portfolio Investment Hasan A. Arif, Managing Director of Alice Labs Shuvo Rahman, and other stakeholders were present.
D2C (Direct to Business) brands are losing margins and revenue due to high aggregator commissions, high customer acquisition costs, and drop-offs from websites and messaging channels. MyAlice offers D2C brands by providing a unified platform for customer support, sales, and marketing to help increase their revenue while cutting operational costs. It brings Social & Commerce Together to build Seamless Checkout from Social Chats.
A 3x increase in sales is expected through social media by 2025 and MyAlice aims to play a pivotal part in this. More than 150 businesses across South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East use MyAlice to increase their revenues from online businesses. Currently, MyAlice is working on Generative AI-based automation to help their customers unlock additional sales opportunities.
"Innovation-driven startups are positioned as the catalysts for meeting market demands and steering a transformative trajectory for significant economic growth. The technological solutions pioneered by these startups play a pivotal role in propelling our nation toward the realization of a visionary future, harmonizing seamlessly with our aspirations for a Smart Bangladesh. With this investment, I believe Alice Labs will contribute to making a lasting impact in the industry and help build a better future," expressed Honorable State Minister Zunaid Ahmed Palak, MP, Ministry of Posts, Telecommunication & ICT on the occasion.
"The remarkable work undertaken by Alice Labs in the SaaS industry has garnered our attention, and the investment from Startup Bangladesh will catalyze their outreach to a broader audience, both locally and globally. We anticipate that Alice Labs will play a pivotal role in contributing to the implementation of Smart Bangladesh as a startup. The ICT Division is actively shaping policies to support the growth of emerging startups in various dimensions," stated MD Shamsul Arefin, Secretary, the ICT Division and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Startup Bangladesh.
"Startup Bangladesh envisions empowering local startups to ascend to new heights, setting the stage for increased foreign investment. Alice Labs, a leading SAAS platform in Bangladesh, embodies innovation to tackle global challenges at scale. We see Alice Labs as a trailblazer for other SaaS companies emerging from Bangladesh, and with the right strategic focus, we anticipate a global impact originating from Bangladesh," remarked Sami Ahmed, Managing Director, Startup Bangladesh Limited.
Shuvo Rahman, Managing Director of Alice Labs said, "We are honored to have Startup Bangladesh Limited join our seed round along with some reputed international investors. The future looks exciting, and with this investment, we plan to natively bring Generative AI into our product and scale our company globally.”
Startup Bangladesh in its effort to build a vibrant startup ecosystem that nurtures digitalization, has been investing in the most promising and impactful startups in Bangladesh and has continued that tradition by investing in Alice Labs.
