Startup Bangladesh Limited, the flagship venture capital fund of the ICT Division, today announced that it has canceled a Tk 5 crore investment proposal for 10 Minute School, Bangladesh’s largest edtech platform. The decision was shared on Startup Bangladesh’s verified Facebook page and reiterated by State Minister for Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology Zunaid Ahmed Palak on his own verified page. Attack on students: Quota protesters block Khulna-Jashore Highway “Startup Bangladesh Limited has rejected the investment proposal of Tk 5 crore for 10 Minute School,” Palak posted. Quota protests: NSU, BracU, IUB students block major roads in Dhaka This move comes amid the ongoing protests demanding reform of the quota system in government jobs. Ayman Sadiq, co-founder and CEO of 10 Minute School, has publicly supported the protestors’ demands for quota reform. “We demand quota reform. Merit should be the biggest quota,” Sadiq posted on his Facebook on Saturday, using the hashtag #QuotaMovement. Quota reform protests: Students block several points of Dhaka-Barishal Highway

Video streaming service provider Bongo has partnered with edtech or educational technology company Shikho to improve the video learning experience for online learners in Bangladesh. This partnership will enable learners to get a faster experience and also learn offline without the internet. Shikho, launched in November 2020, has over 350,000 learners across 64 districts where paying students spend over an hour learning daily. Read 7 Local Startups Get Tk 150m Funds from Startup Bangladesh Limited The company provides academic courses for Secondary School Certificate (SSC), Higher Secondary School Certificate (HSC) and competitive university entrance exams. Recently it acquired Bohubrihi, an online educational platform for professionals. Bongo has over 3 million unique viewers with 200,000 people every day watching content all over Bangladesh. It also works with over 550 content creators locally and internationally including creators from India, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Canada. Read The Emerging Logistics Tech Startups, Courier, Delivery Services in Bangladesh Using Bongo's video solution, Shikho will be able to improve its streaming experience and get very detailed video analytics information to ensure the company knows what quality content is working and also how that content is reaching the end-user. Bongo will also provide an offline learning experience in the future where students can simply go to a wifi hotspot to download the content and learn at home without any internet at their own pace.