News and Stories
Muna wins "Diplomat of the Year 2022" Award
Bangladesh high commissioner to the United Kingdom Saida Muna Tasneem received the prestigious ‘Diplomat of the Year 2022 Award’ from world-famous Diplomat Magazine, UK, for her ‘outstanding contribution to climate diplomacy.’
The award was handed over to the high commissioner by the editor of the Diplomat Magazine, London recently at an annual gala diplomatic event at London’s Biltmore Mayfair in the presence of over 250 London-based diplomats, said the High Commission on Thursday.
The Diplomat Award of the Year is an annual award given out by Diplomat Magazine UK based on nominations and votes cast by UK-based envoys of more than 165 countries who maintain resident missions in London.
This is the first time that a Bangladeshi diplomat has received such recognition in the UK.
Paperfly bags another Tk 102 crore investment
Logistics-tech company Paperfly today confirmed another Tk 102 crore investment from the leading Indian tech-based e-commerce logistics solutions provider, Ecom Express.
The Indian company also invested TK 100 crore into Paperfly last year, taking its total investment in local start-up to Tk 202 crore.
Founded in 2016 by Shahriar Hasan, Razibul Islam, Rahath Ahmed, and Shamsuddin Ahmed, Paperfly is the first homegrown tech-enabled logistics company in Bangladesh to offer nationwide coverage, said a press release of Paperfly.
With the investment, the company looks to digitize the courier sector of Bangladesh, according to an official of Paperfly.
Wavemaker leads $4m round of Bangladeshi edtech startup
Shikho offers academic courses for the Bangladeshi national curriculum secondary school certificate, higher secondary school certificate, and competitive university entrance exams. Its platform provides on-demand video lessons, live classes with tutors, data analytics to track performance and progress, and more.
Nearly 350,000 users across 64 districts of Bangladesh are using Shikho’s mobile platform, which launched in November 2020. Paid subscribers currently spend an average of 68 minutes on the app daily, according to the company.
Shikho was founded in 2019 by Shahir Chowdhury and Zeeshan Zakaria.
$750M investment came to startups in a decade
The country received more than $750 million in local and foreign investment in the startup sector over the last decade, State Minister for Information and Communication Technology Zunaid Ahmed Palak said.
Mentioning that the country currently accommodates over 22,500 startups, he added that the government was financially supporting the businesses through its initiatives – Startup Bangladesh Limited and Bangabandhu Innovation Grant.
The state minister disclosed these while virtually addressing a program at the ICT Tower in the capital on Wednesday.
Startup Bangladesh, the flagship venture capital fund of the ICT ministry, organized the event to sign agreements to provide Tk17 crore in investment aid to 8 startups in the second phase under its campaign "Shotoborshe Shoto Asha".
Japan's SoftBank to acquire 20 percent stake in bKash
The bank also announced that the new investment would not change its shareholding in bKash
Japanese tech investment giant SoftBank is going to enter Bangladesh by acquiring a 20% of stake in the mobile financial service (MFS) giant bKash.
BRAC Bank Ltd, the majority owner of bKash, in its board meeting approved the relevant share purchase and subscription agreement among bKash, its existing shareholders, and the proposed investor SoftBank Vision Fund II BEAM (DE) LLC.
The SoftBank Fund, which invested in India's e-commerce platform FlipKart, would make both primary and secondary investments in bKash, Brac Bank disclosed in a piece of price-sensitive information on Wednesday evening.
The bank also announced that the new investment would not change its shareholding in bKash.