After Aavishkaar and Segnel Ventures, 500 Startups just announced a new fund for India, Bangladesh and few other markets. Increasing number of local and international VCs are showing interest in Bangladesh’s growing startup scene. Last year alone saw more than half a dozen investments into startups. 2016 started with a bang, BDcabs raised an undisclosed amount from Turkish investor Ethohum at a valuation of US$6.5m.
Top of that, Dhaka has more than a dozen venture capital firms now and new firms are joining the space at regular intervals. Similarly, number of angel investors is also on the rise. It means, funding scenario is going to be pretty different in coming days.
We have put together a list of startups that received funding last year and this year. The interesting thing about this list is that: it is extremely diverse compared to what is happening in other neighboring countries.
There might be startups and companies raised funding last year that we are not aware of, if you know any startup, please send details to info@futurestartup.com.
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1. Chaldal: The three years old online grocery store is one of the most well funded startups in Dhaka having investment from Y Combinator, 500 Startups and a host of angel investors in Dhaka.
Sector: eCommerce
Investors: Y Combinator, 500 Startups, Mohammed Adnan Imam, Tanveer Ali, Sajid Islam
Total fund raised: Undisclosed
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2. Shohoz: Shohoz.com, the premium online travel service provider offering bus tickets, hotel reservations, and launch tickets, is one of the fast growing startups in Dhaka.
Sector: eCommerce
Investors: Fenox Venture Capital
Total Fund Raised: Undisclosed
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3. Priyo: The fast growing and much discussed internet portal of the country received an undisclosed amount from Fenox Venture-a Silicon Valley based venture capital firm, in 2014.
Sector: Media
Investor: Fenox Venture Capital
Total Fund Raised: Undisclosed
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4. bKash: The leading mobile banking and financial service startup, started as a joint venture between BRAC Bank Limited, Bangladesh and Money in Motion LLC, USA, received its first equity investment from IFC in 2013. In the following year the startup received an US$11 million investment from Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Sector: Fintech
Investors: IFC, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Total Amount raised: US $11m from Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. IFC investment is undisclosed
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5. Sure Cash: The mobile banking and payment operator in Bangladesh, founded by Dr. Shahadat Khan in 2010 raised an amount of $7 Million from The Osiris Group. SureCash operates a mobile banking and payment platform that allows anyone with a mobile phone to deposit cash, send money, make purchases, and pay bills.
Sector: Fintech
Investor: Osiris Group
Total Amount raised: US $7m
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6. Doctorola: The startup provides real time doctor information and appointments service.
Sector: Medtech
Investor: BD Venture
Total Amount raised: BDT 20m
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7. Chorki: Chorki, a search engine for Bangladeshi local content, raised an undisclosed amount from Mind Initiative, venture capital wing of SSD-Tech.
Sector: Search engine
Investor: Mind Initiative
Total Amount raised: Undisclosed
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8. eCourier: eCourier Limited, the next generation logistics company based in Dhaka, is one of the fast growing logistics startups in Dhaka.
Sector: Logistics
Investor: Mind Initiative
Total Investment raised: Undisclosed
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9. Color Talking: The Startup develops and manages multiple websites delivering different types of content for the Bangladeshi web audiences through its Lekhok platform.
Sector: Media
Investor: Shahriar Haque
Total amount raised: Undisclosed
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10. LightCastle Partners: The startup offers market insight, consumer research and industry due diligence and also launched a self-serving survey platform called LightCastle Data.
Sector: Research/Big Data/Data Analytics
Total amount raised: Undisclosed
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11. SmartKompare: The less than a year old financial product comparison startup is one of the fast growing startups in the space.
Sector: Findtech
Investor: Chaldal, IPE Capital, Sajid Islam
Total amount raised: Undisclosed
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12. Jetechao: The event listing platform that aims to look beyond event and also get into selling tickets and all raised an undisclosed amount from Razor Capital.
Sector: Marketplace
Investor: Razor Capital
Total amount raised: Undisclosed
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13. Handymama: The TaskRabbit type marketplace for household tasks startup HandyMama connects households with taskers via web and mobile platform with a Call Center in place to outsource their everyday household tasks that they don’t want to do. The startup came out of Founder Institute’s first batch in Dhaka received a small fund from Fenox.
Sector: Marketplace
Investor: Fenox Venture Capital
Total amount raised: US $15k
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14. 3rd Bell Entertainment: Started early 2014, 3rdBell is one of the fast growing video streaming startups in Dhaka.
Sector: Video Streaming
Investor: M Asif Rahman and few undisclosed local investors
Total amount raised: Undisclosed
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15. BDcabs: BDcabs, launched in 2015, is aTaxi/vehicle booking platform with mobile and web apps. It connects licensed taxis and private hire vehicles with the passengers through BDcabs app and website from reputed companies like Toma Taxi who have long-term agreements with BDcabs.
Sector: Transportation/on-demand
Investor: ETHOHUM
Total amount raised: Undisclosed. However, the startup was valued at US$ 6.5m
