In a milestone for Bangladesh's growing startup ecosystem, serial entrepreneur and prominent angel investor M Asif Rahman has announced a lucrative exit from Apploye Inc., one of the country's leading SaaS startups. While the parties didn’t disclose the details of the exit, our conversation with the people with information about the deal suggests that it happened at healthy multiples.
The exit marks Mr. Asif's first from a SaaS company and a meaningful win for the local tech industry. Mr. Asif, a serial entrepreneur who has founded a series of successful tech companies, has been a prolific investor in Dhaka’s fledgling startup scene, backing startups from across verticals since the early days of the ecosystem.
While exits are considered a natural outcome in startup investing and may not warrant major news stories, this is a significant event for an early-stage ecosystem like Bangladesh, where the local startup investment scene remains underwhelming and people remain skeptical of the whole idea of investing in early-stage companies.
Apploye, a remote employee time tracking and field force automation and resource management platform, has been on an impressive growth trajectory. The company provides remote time-tracking solutions for hundreds of remote companies worldwide and saw a boom in user growth during the COVID-19 pandemic. It later launched Fieldservicely, a field service management system for field and mobile-based employees. The company says it has recently achieved break-even and secured a major deal with a large Saudi Hajj ground operator to handle part of the Hajj pilgrimage operations.
"Sheikh Shourav is a rare founder. Multi-lingual, with experience of working in multiple markets. Extremely tenacious and high integrity. When I first met Shourav, Apploye was just getting started. Today, it has grown into a formidable player in its vertical. I'm delighted to take this exit as Apploye enters a more secure phase of growth," said Mr. Asif. "The company is scaling heavily. I have immense faith in Shourav and the Apploye leadership team and I believe they will take the company to a different height."
“It has been an honor to work with Asif Rahman over the past 5 years, and I'm grateful for all his support. I believe the trust we've built over the years by working together will help us launch new collaborations in the future,” Said Sheikh Shourav, founder and CEO of Apploye.
The exit represents a substantial win for Mr. Asif as well as for Apploye and underscores the immense potential of Bangladeshi startups to attract investment and achieve successful exits. As the nation's startup ecosystem matures, the story of Apploye and Mr. Asif should inspire more investors and founders.
