The orientation and press conference of Bangladesh's first ever Government sponsored competition, Connecting Startups Bangladesh, held today at the city's KBI Auditorium, Farmgate. The program, a PPP project by nature, is a joint initiative of ICT Division of Bangladesh Government, Bangladesh Hi-Tech Park Authority (BHTPA) and BASIS.
Connecting Startups Bangladesh aims to connect startups to markets and investors by providing mentoring and incubation to potential startups. In addition to that the winners will receive free workspace, logistic support, training, opportunities and exposure to meet multiple VCs and other funds.
The program said to receive around 400 applications. Following a verification process, the selected startups will be called for an interview and 10 startups will be allotted space at StartUp Incubator of the Janata Tower STP (Software Technology Park) at the Bangladesh Hi-Tech Park completely free of cost for a year.
A very interesting list of speakers shared stage at today's program, scheduled from 9:00 to 3:00 pm, including Kamal Quadir of bKash, Fahim Mashroor of BDjobs, Iraj Islam of NewsCred, Riyad Shahir Hossain of Magnito Digital with few more notable names and spoke about topics ranging from funding to marketing to business infrastructure and more.
Bangladesh startup scene is growing fast. Startups have proliferated in recent years while the ecosystem is maturing fast. Program like Connecting Startup Bangladesh and active involvement of Government will definitely help propel the growth the ecosystem.
