Angel investors are those who invest seed money into a business to kick start its operation. This investment usually comes in exchange for convertible debt or equity in the ownership of the company. From a startup perspective, angel investments are a great way to secure funds as well as mentorship from the investors working in the relevant industry. Here is how a business can raise angel investment, especially if they are from Bangladesh.  The Angel Investment Landscape of Bangladesh  Bangladesh is still in the early stages of angel investment. There were not many investors a few years back in the startup ecosystem. However, the pace is picking up. Bangladesh Startup Investment Report of 2022 shows that Bangladeshi startups were able to raise $112 million in 2022. A total of 47 startups were able to secure funds, among whom 39 brought unique service propositions. The largest funding was received by ShopUp who were able to raise $65 million from Valar Ventures and Flourish Ventures. About 8% of the total funding came from local investors. On average, the angel investment size for early-stage startups was around $588K. Bangladesh is in the lower tier when it comes to securing venture funds. Read more: How to Gain Funding for Startup: Best Practices to Attract Investors How to Get Angel Investment in Bangladesh  Getting an angel investor to invest is neither straightforward nor easy. A startup will need to put in the work, especially in Bangladesh where the investment ratio is low. There are several key things to consider when it comes to securing angel investment. Here are some of them.  Clear Business Idea and Plan  A startup should have a clear business idea backed up by a strong and detailed plan to secure angel investment. The plan should outline the startup's mission, market opportunity, revenue model, target audience, competition analysis, marketing strategy, and financial projections. A solid business plan is crucial for gaining investor confidence.  Market Validation  Investors look for product or service confidence while investing. As a result, it is important to create a market validation of the startup product or service before making the initial approach for funds.  Market validation can be done by developing a market-viable product. This product or service can be channeled to early adopters and customers. Based on their experience, a positive narrative for the product can be developed. This will play a crucial role in securing early-stage angel investment.  Read more: How to Build Social Capital to Grow Your Business

The US Chamber of Commerce has said collaboration between the US private sector and Bangladeshi startups can be a "powerful tool" in the new generation of growth of Bangladesh-US economic relations. The US Chamber of Commerce's US-Bangladesh Business Council led an executive delegation to Bangladesh for a four-day visit to discuss strengthening of US-Bangladesh economic relations with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and senior members of the Bangladesh government across trade and commerce, foreign affairs, finance, energy, digital economy, water and sustainability. The delegation ended its visit by meeting with over 30 Bangladeshi startups and partners at the Edward M Kennedy Center to ensure US companies are well connected to the talented youth and entrepreneurs of Bangladesh. They are building state-of-the-art solutions across fintech, agriculture, water, food security, and professional services that are supporting Bangladesh's transition to a developed economy by 2041, said the US Chamber of Commerce on Friday. The US delegates shared their experience on access to finance and angel investing, ideas to capture different segments of an emerging economy, providing access to secure platforms to build new products and services, and partnerships with the private sector to co-create products and solutions. The executive delegation was led by the Council's Board Chair Jay R Pryor, vice-president (business development) at Chevron, as the mission lead, and joined by Visa and Excelerate Energy as corporate partners. The Council's full board of directors and over 30 US company industry leaders from a diversity of sectors of cooperation also joined the delegation. "It is our time now! Take your time taking opportunities in our conducive investment environment. Bangladesh has been recommended to graduate from the LDC in 2026. We are aspiring to become a developed and prosperous country by 2041," Prime Minister Hasina told the delegation. For that purpose, she said, they need enhanced investment from friendly countries, especially from the US. "With strong prospects, I will now assure you of the best possible policy framework to ease our business and investment climate," she said.

There are many examples around us where the dream of becoming an entrepreneur is shattered due to a lack of capital despite all the wonderful ideas. While the first-world countries have all the opportunities and support to launch a startup, Bangladesh doesn't have a favorable condition to begin a startup. However, still, some enthusiastic minds took their step and became successful. To accelerate their initiative, government-owned Venture Capital Company Startup Bangladesh Limited started their journey. The Journey of Startup Bangladesh LTD The cabinet has approved a state-owned venture capital company called Startup Bangladesh Limited in August 2019. According to the government's Information and Communication Technology Divisions (ICT), the Prime Minister gave policy approval to the company at a regular meeting. Once the company is established, it will be able to invest a maximum of Tk. 1 crore in the seed stage and a maximum of Tk. 5 crores in the growth-guided startup round in terms of startup valuation. Read: The Emerging Logistics Tech Startups, Courier, Delivery Services in Bangladesh According to a written statement from the Department of Information and Communication Technology, Startup Bangladesh Limited will play a key role in creating a sustainable startup ecosystem in Bangladesh as the first state-owned venture capital company and will take the government's vision-2021 one step further. The aim of the company is to encourage foreign direct investment in the country by transforming the innovative ideas of startups in Bangladesh into business, as well as to eliminate unemployment, create employment and economic development for the country as a whole. ICT Minister Zunaid Ahmed Polok mentioned in the cabinet meeting that the company needs to be formed to provide funding, mentoring, co-working space, legal aid, etc., to startups. In 2019-2020 budget, the government had allocated Tk. 100 crore for the startup sector. The journey started with the capital of Tk. 500 crore. This year, startup Bangladesh Limited will provide Tk 100 crore to 50 entrepreneurs. The funds will be spent on creating young entrepreneurs, innovating technologies, advances, new workplaces, and socioeconomic change. Read: Digital Healthcare Startups in Bangladesh: An Overview The announcement came at the signing ceremony of an agreement to celebrate the 50th anniversary of independence as well as the first series of startups to invest in Bangladesh. With this, the new campaign titled 'ShotoBorshe Shoto Asha' of Startup Bangladesh Limited officially started its journey on March 31, 2021. The campaign was officially announced by ICT minister Zunaid Ahmed Palak. Deputy Minister for Education Mohibul Hasan Chowdhury was the special guest. The company gave Tk. 15 crores to 7 Bangladeshi startups this year. The seven companies are Pathao Limited, Sheba XYZ, Chaldal.com, Intelligence Machine, Dhaka Cast, Eduhive, and Moner Bondhu. This fund will enable them to improve the quality of their products or services, increase productivity, market and improve supply-chain management. This time Startup Bangladesh Limited is investing only in established and successful ventures. But the company will also invest in the new entrants too, especially the students. Students need to be introduced to such startups; then they will be able to do something on their own without running after the job. Read Angel Investment 101: Is It the Right Track for Your Startup? Seven Bangladeshi Startups to Get Investments from Startup Bangladesh LTD Following are the details of the 7 Bangladeshi who are getting Tk.15 crore. Pathao Bangladeshi ride-sharing company Pathao is going to get more investment and this time from the government-owned venture capital company. However, the exact amount is not published yet, but they will get a significant amount for sure. This is not the first time that Pathao received an investment. Previously the company raised investment from the secondary market in 2018 from Clearstone. Earlier, Gojek, an Indonesian ride-sharing company, made a big investment in Pathao. Gojek invested $2 million in 2017. In 2015, Pathao started its journey as a courier service and later brought ride-sharing services through the mobile app. At first, bikes were added, and then car or car services were added. After receiving the investment, the company adds food delivery and payment services to their services. But Pathao Pay as a payment service was stopped later as it did not get approval from Bangladesh Bank. Pathao has expanded its ride-sharing service to Dhaka, Chittagong, and Sylhet in the country. It has also launched a ride-sharing service in Nepal. Read:The 7 Most Promising Tech Startups in Bangladesh Sheba XYZ Seva XYZ is an online service-based marketplace in Bangladesh. There are many services in the service app, including air conditioning service, electric and home appliance, plumbing and sanitary, furniture making and repair, wall painting, house cleaning. The organization has worked on a personal and small scale for so many days. Recently, they have started providing services to the corporate sector by increasing the scope of their activities. Sheba XYZ got funding from Startup Bangladesh Limited. Nevertheless, the company also raised an overall $1 million previously. The company needed at least two million more dollars to run the operations at home and abroad. Hence, the investment from the government-owned venture capital company will surely boost Sheba XYZ to expand its business. Read The SWAP story of Bangladesh's first reCommerce startup

State Minister for ICT Zunaid Ahmed Palak and Indian High Commissioner Vikram Doraiswami Monday inaugurated the six-part webinar series, "Shoto Borsho Shoto Asha – Rise Up." The Indian High Commission in Dhaka, Startup Bangladesh, Startup India, and the ICT Division of Bangladesh are jointly organising it. The webinar series is also supported by Economic Reporters Forum, Bangladesh Startup Consortium and BD AIR. Speaking at today's event, hosted by Startup Bangladesh Managing Director and CEO Tina Jabeen, Palak said: "Increased cooperation between the startups in Bangladesh and India will be mutually beneficial." High Commissioner Vikram Doraiswami said in the next six months, the RiseUp platform will bring together mentors, innovators, entrepreneurs and investors from India and Bangladesh. He hoped that the platform will facilitate an effective cross-learning opportunity that will benefit talented entrepreneurs from both countries, especially young innovators. READ: Bangladesh to launch ‘Jogajog’ as alternative to Facebook, says Palak Doraiswami also recalled that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had invited 50 Bangladeshi entrepreneurs to visit India and connect with the country's startup and innovation ecosystem during his state visit to Bangladesh in March 2021. The high commissioner stressed that the RiseUp series could facilitate such linkages to jumpstart tangible cooperation. Following the opening ceremony, a panel discussion on "StartUp Landscape in Bangladesh and India – Tech StartUps Transforming the Future" was held. Yamini Bhushan Pandey, CEO of Startup Incubation and Acceleration Division at Indian School of Business and Sharad Sharma, co-founder of iSPIRT Foundation India and member of National Startup Advisory Council, were joined by Wasim Alim, co-founder and CEO of Chaldal, and Rahat Ahmed, CEO of Anchorless Bangladesh. READ: Telemedicine service to be launched at 16000 community hospitals: Palak Monday's webinar will be followed by more discussions on the regulatory environment for startups, ways to overcome hurdles to create a successful startup, fundraising strategies, strategies for startups to go international and startup opportunities in Bangladesh and India.

If the healthcare system is not functioning properly, the citizens have to suffer the consequences, and it is true for any country in the world. Hence, Bangladesh is not different either. Fortunately, Bangladesh is heading towards digitization. In this wake, many digital healthcare startups have been showing prospects. Over the last decade, some online healthcare startups have boomed with the aim of providing improved healthcare service, with better access to healthcare. We have compiled a list of top digital healthcare startups in Bangladesh. Let's get to know them. Best digital healthcare startups in Bangladesh Maya Maya was founded by Ivy Huq Russell in 2011 as a content-based platform focusing on women's health care. But over the past years, it has been redesigned as a health care platform to offer anonymous messaging services about physical, psychological, and mental health questions. Maya Expert, an in-house built AI, answers about 30% of the incoming question with an accuracy rate of 90%. Maya has their own app on Google Play, and so far, the Maya bot has served around 7.5 million people. They also offer B2B premium service where companies can take care of their employees' mental healthcare. However, Maya has introduced premium services that included video consultation and medicine delivery. Moreover, the company has a Maya Shop that sells lifestyle and healthcare-related products. Read Top health apps for online doctor consultation services in Bangladesh Jeeon Jeeon is a social business registered in the US and based in Bangladesh. Jeeon has been working in Bangladesh since 2015. Jeeon's mission is to improve the health care of rural people in Bangladesh. And with that goal, they work with village doctors and pharmacists. Jeeon creates supply systems for quality medicines and other health products and prevents counterfeiting. Furthermore, they work on increasing skills and competencies by providing various training to village doctors and pharmacists. Besides these, they also introduce and support new business ideas and new technologies in healthcare to the rural people. To highlight the important role of village doctors and pharmacists in the health sector of Bangladesh, Jeeon tries to contact the policymakers. Now Jeeon has 4330 pharmacies in their network in different locations of the country, including Dhaka, Mymensingh, Khulna, Jessore, and other places. Read The 7 Most Promising Tech Startups in Bangladesh Moner Bondhu In 2016, Moner Bondhu started its journey with a unique idea. It aims to offer professional counseling at an affordable and accessible cost online. Currently, Moner Bondhu has engagement in three sectors. Firstly, they provide care and support to mentally disturbed people through its helpline – both online and offline. Secondly, they organize different training sessions, workshops on stress management and create awareness on mental healthcare. Thirdly, Moner Bondhu endorses mental healthcare issues through a weekly radio program on Color's FM 101.6. According to the organization, they have reached 20,00,000 people so far online and 1,10,000 people through in-person and offline events. Moreover, Moner Bondhu has been working with the RMG sector in partnership with the UNDP to counter the mental health adversities of the RMG workers. Read Small Business Ideas for F-commerce Startups in Bangladesh during Pandemic BanglaMeds Founded in 2017 by Gazi Raffan, BanglaMeds is one of the first online pharmacies in Bangladesh. They offer OTC drugs and prescription medicines delivery around the country. BanglaMeds aims to provide medicine delivery within one to three hours after the confirmation of the order. However, sometimes the delivery time may take two days depending on the customer's location. The medicine ordering process is simple. You can take a picture or scan your prescription and upload it. Then the pharmacist will contact you to select the meds you want and for the verification. After that, you can get the medicines at your doorsteps. However, you will need to show the prescriptions to receive the delivery. Apart from medicines, you can order accessories, diabetic kits, baby and mother care products, hygiene products, and more. The order can be done via various methods such as apps, websites, or even the social media platform. Read Truck Lagbe: Story of a Successful Digital Trucking Startup in Bangladesh CMED Started in 2017, CMED is an AI-driven cloud base healthcare service provider. Dr. Khondaker Abdullah Al Mamun designed the CMED system that can monitor the vital organs of a human body. CMED app is available on smartphones or tablets via Bluetooth. It can measure some important health vitalities such as oxygen saturation, blood pressure, blood sugar, pulse rate, height, weight, body mass index, and temperature. Based on these data, the app can provide instant feedback and also notify if there is a health risk. They offer a health kit that comes with a digital height scale, weight scale, a blood glucose monitor, blood oxygen monitor, blood pressure monitors, and a thermometer. Further, the kit can be connected with the CMED app. So, you can complete the primary health checkup at home without visiting any doctor. Currently, they have more than 3314K+ registered users. Read The SWAP story of Bangladesh's first reCommerce startup Olwel Olwel is a Finland-based startup founded in 2017. They mainly offer doctor consultation services via online video calls, medicine delivery, lab testing, and ambulance service. Initially, the service was started with the access of 16 doctors of different specialties. Currently, Olwel operates throughout Dhaka city. The goal of Olwel is to connect the patients with nearby doctors through a website, app, or hotline. The company aims to provide home service within 30 minutes of the call. You will find the consultant's name and specialty in the app or website. The service charge for an online video consultation service is Tk. 600. The doctor will give you the consultation based on your history within those 30 minutes. Read An Overview of Shuttle: A Promising Mass Transit Startup in Bangladesh

BYLC Ventures: Cohort 3 announced three startups as winners  on Sunday. The three winning teams are Interactive Cares, an edtech company, KhaniDani, a food delivery company and Tunibibi, a global logistics platform.  The three winning teams will receive seed funding of Taka 800,000 with the option of an additional Taka 1,500,000 as scale-up funding.  READ: Climate action: BYLC holds World Environment Day Creative Competition Along with it, the winning teams will gain access to a world-class business accelerator program, in-house mentoring and networking support, legal and virtual CFO support, as well as a co-working space in Bangladesh Youth Leadership Center's (BYLC) Mohakhali office with rigorous leadership training. Two teams, Dhaka Game Studio and Ministry of Codes, were given honorary mentions and will receive mentorship and training support from BYLC Ventures. BYLC Ventures opened applications for Cohort 3 on March 15, 2021, and received hundreds of applications from numerous sectors and industries from all over Bangladesh.  READ: BYLC launches Volunteer Awards 2021 From May 4, more than 200 founders from 105 shortlisted startups took part in a six-day-long, intensive and interactive virtual boot camp.  After the boot camp session, 20 startups were selected for the thrilling final jury session. The selected winning teams will join BYLC Ventures’ existing portfolio of 13 startups from the last two cohorts. Read BYLC Ventures holds its largest virtual bootcamp to date

Gone are the days when education was something that was limited to the classrooms and books. Nowadays students have access to the internet and electronic devices that give them access to the world. Education doesn’t have to stay confined to the pages and classrooms. With the pandemic in effect, this stands truer than ever that education can be decimated through the online medium as well through the proper process. In recent years, Bangladesh has seen a surge in education startups that aims to make education more accessible and fun for the students. Let's have a look at some of the most promising ones. Best Education Technology Companies in Bangladesh Shikho Shikho is one of the newer ed-tech startups from Bangladesh. the company aims to provide curriculum and school-based learning on an online platform. Currently, the platform works with students from class 6 up to HSC.  The main aim of the platform is to make education more fun and easier for the students so that it doesn’t become boring for them. the company has received funding of over 275k and are looking to expand their horizon beyond the general curriculum. Upskill Founded in 2018 by Mustafizur R Rahman, Fayaz Taher, and Samad Miraly, Upskill is a platform that works like Coursera. Except Upskill is all about peer-to-peer knowledge sharing. The platform provides a place for skilled person to share their specific skillset with the world. Anyone can sign up on the platform and undertake the courses. This is a great initiative away from the traditional learning scopes and incorporating online facilities. You can easily gain new skills or share your own on the platform. The platform as a whole is working to make its users more skilled and enabling means of primary as well as passive income. The company managed to secure funds of over 100k dollars. Read Pros and Cons of Reopening Educational Institutions during Pandemic. Admission Ninja One of the most competitive exams of Bangladesh is the admission exams. Every year, around half a million sits for the entrance exams to universities. Needless to say, as fiercely competitive as the exams are, it is also very hard. Admission Ninja tries to ease the preparation process for the examinations through its platform. The app-based platform works to provide students with study material, model tests, admission notices, and various other facilities, all for free. The app is available for both Android and iOS platforms. Eshkul Eshkul is a school management system based on a cloud platform. Though it doesn’t directly act as an educational platform for the students, it works to make the process of engaging students in an online platform easier. Eshkul has two separate parts – a student portal and a school ERP. Besides this the platform provides an e-learning service where schools or teachers can develop visual aids as part of the study material for their curriculum. The platform acts as a one-stop solution for all kinds of digital needs of schools and teachers alike. The application is available for both Android and iOS platforms. Repto Funded as part of the Grameenphone accelerator program, Repto is similar to Upskill where users can create and sell courses they expertise in. It’s a comprehensive marketplace for courses and you can find all sorts as per your need. For course providers, the platform can work as a great source for passive income as you get to earn every time someone signs up for the course. As a student, you get access to verified quality content at an affordable rate which makes learning and generating skills easier. After successful completion of a course, you will also get certified from Repto which you can add to your CV. Read Homeschooling Tricks for Parents during Coronavirus Pandemic Educarnival The website claims to be the number one education portal of Bangladesh and we can hardly argue that. This is probably the most comprehensive education-related website when it comes to secondary level and above. Whether it's SSC or competitive job exams, this site has got you covered for preparation. There are a lot of study material as well as model test opportunities that you can avail for free. You can also receive updates and news about job recruitments from the portal. Overall, this is a great site to hone your learnings and preparation for any type of exams from secondary and above. Classtune Classtune is another full-fledged learning management system. The pandemic has reshaped how we look at education with most of the institutes having to resort to online classes. Having an LMS in place helps to reduce all sorts of the hassle that comes with shifting normal classrooms into online ones. With Classtune, teachers can create their learning system and course module for the students. There is also a process for tracking student performance and attendance. Classtune has the most comprehensive LMS in Bangladesh and the services offered by it are sure to make the entire digitization process of education much easier. CodersTrust CodersTrust works to make freelancing easy for everyone. the reality of our job sector is that there aren’t enough opportunities even if you are qualified enough. In that respect, freelancing can be an alternate career if you acquire the necessary skills. With that view in mind, a prominent Bengali business person Mr. Aziz Ahmad founded CodersTrust in 2013. Currently, CodersTrust operates in 11 countries including Bangladesh. the headquarter of CodersTrust is situated in Copenhagen, Denmark. In addition to freelancing and applied education, the platform also offers various business management services. Read Online Resources for Homeschooling Children during the pandemic. Classroom One of the common gripes facing the students of our country is access to quality education. A student residing in a rural area doesn’t have the access to the same quality of education compared to a student of a city area. The classroom app was developed to bridge this gap. The platform offers a comprehensive solution to curriculum-related problems from class 8 up to graduation. Students can easily access learning material and can develop their core concept of any subject. The application is available on both android and iOS platforms. 10 Minutes School 10 Minutes School is probably the most successful ed-tech startup in Bangladesh. Founded in 2014 by Ayman Sadiq, the platform offers a range of course modules and solutions of curriculum-based studies, often in the form of 10 minutes of learning. Over the years, 10 minutes school has also incorporated skill-based learning making it an effective platform for students of all ages. The course modules aren’t limited to the NCTB curriculum anymore, rather there are modules of higher studies and various skill certification exams. One of the visionaries of online learning in Bangladesh, 10 Minutes School has been a beacon in transforming and digitizing the education sector of Bangladesh. Read: Entrepreneur Vs Wantrepreneur: 8 Ways to Tell Them Apart

BYLC Ventures held a six-day-long virtual bootcamp with more than 200 founders from 105 selected startups from May 4-9, 2021. From 105 startups, the top 30 will be selected to go forward in the final round. From the final group of 30 startups, the jury will select 5 startups who will receive seed funding of BDT 800,000 with the option of an additional BDT 1,500,000 as scale-up funding. The start-ups will also gain access to a world-class business accelerator program, in-house mentoring and networking support, legal and virtual CFO support, as well as a co-working space in BYLC’s Mohakhali office. Also read: BYLC Ventures opens applications for 3rd cohort These chosen start-ups will also receive rigorous leadership training. The intensive and interactive bootcamp sessions covered various aspects of developing a start-up idea - from identifying a real problem in society, refining the start-up’s solution for the problem, to making an understanding of the customer persona and demographics of whom to offer the solution. Also read: BYLC Ventures holds virtual entrepreneurship bootcamp Sessions also enlightened the diverse audience of Bangladesh-based founders on the art of storytelling for business, developing a go-to-market strategy, preparing and presenting accurate financial data and forecasts, the local legal and regulatory infrastructures to navigate, and effective methods for user research and customer feedback. The sessions were supplemented with workshops where founders worked with the facilitators to iterate their business model and develop their pitch decks.

Uttaron SME card has been launched to ease the small businesses and startups’ access to mainstream investment and finance.

Indian cricketers have been the face of numerous brands over the years. But with the startup culture flourishing in this country, it is just another pitch for many retired players to show their talent with all that they have -- brand value, marketing power and even money -- in their second innings of life.