GP announces their winner of their entrepreneurship programme ‘innovation xtreme’
With over 350 participants attending the event ‘Innovation Xtreme (IX)’, GP premiered a platform where young entrepreneurs and investors collaborate to share ideas and business prospects. The event took place on November 22nd, at Radisson Hotel, which was and perhaps the biggest entrepreneurship and startup event of 2014.
The event generated a crowd with investors, experienced entrepreneurs, corporate professionals, students, and both local and international media to telecast the potential of innovators and entrepreneurs birthing in Bangladesh.
Billionaire Businessman from Nepal, Nirvana Chaudhary gave the keynote speech and held a workshop on ‘Billionaire Basics’. Zarif Munir, MD of Boston Consulting Group gave a presentation on why now is the best time to invest in Bangladesh. Former CEO of Grameenphone and newly appointed CEO of Uninor, Vivek Sood spoke about Telecommunications’ Impact on Startups and Businesses.
Mustafizur R Khan, founder of Startup Dhaka, described Innovation Xtreme as a ‘One of a kind event’, he said, ‘Nothing like this has ever been done before and we are very happy to hold a sold out event that validated our vision of technology enabled businesses in Bangladesh’.
Fayaz Taher, co founder of Startup Dhaka said ‘ We are here to disrupt the way business is done in Bangladesh. By bringing all stakeholders under the same roof we have done just that. At IX we have showcased the brightest, inspired the early starters, and connected everyone together’. This is a major accomplishment and we hope 2015 will be a different year for startups and tech businesses.
Other speakers included representatives from Golden Gate Ventures (VC), Fenox (VC), Boston Consulting Group, Zalora (Fashion E-commerce site from Malaysia), MasterCard, Invest2Innovate (accelerator), International Finance Corporation (IFC), AlleyWatch (Media partner from NYC), Jaago Online School, Augmedix, Solaric, Payza, Bkash, Magnito Digital, Light Castle Partners, Gemroc and Bangladesh Youth Leadership Center (BYLC) among a number of other notable organizations.
The central theme of IX 2014 was ‘Innovation in Bangladesh’, highlighting the success stories and the opportunities. The event showcased 4 leading ventures, including 10 handpicked startups (Biponee, Bongo, Bucket Engineers, Dam Com, Kokhon, Lidia May, LightCastle Partners, Paralax-Logic, Sobji-bazar and ZuumZuum) from Bangladesh. These 10 startups presented in front of venture capitalists and judges in a Mock Startup Investment Pitching Round. The main sponsors of the event were Grameenphone as Title Sponsor and The EMK Center as Gold Sponsor. Although this event was soul-sponsored by Grameen Phone, its stability was partnered by Magnito Digital, LightCastle Partners, DES, American Alumni Association, Preneurlab, G&R, BASIS and Incogmito. Gift sponsors were Fortuna Bangladesh, IPDC, Ericsson, DIRD Group, Popular Life Insurance and IPDC. Media partners were The Daily Star, Radio Foorti, e27, Innovation is Everywhere, Alley Watch, Bamyan Media, and Techjuice.
The three winning startups were:
ZuumZuum.com
ZuumZuum.com is an eCommerce platform for lifestyle shoppers seeking quality products at competitive prices. They ensure you have the right products of a brand, and in a price that is rightful. ZuumZuum.com is looking forward to officially launch their own website by the first of January 2015.
Bongo
The team titled Bongo envisioned an even better digital picture of Bangladesh. Their idea was to take the entire media industry of Bangladesh in to an archive, whereby, people around the country could access important telecasted events or programmes or entertainment at any time of a year. The idea started when the founder behind Bongo was looking for a media footage and couldn’t find it. His disappointment has stirred his imagination in to creating this platform, a place where one could find Bangladeshi media online. Bongo plans on archiving all the entertainment shows ever broadcasted, they have even partnered with several media channels for sources.
This team which is lead by a young Japanese team has even a bigger offer to make for the society, especially in this confusing market with buyers of different sect. They bring forward the most important information a buyer would want, that is the ‘actual prize of a product’. Not only that, they even provide the best purchasing platform at the actual price, just as the name mentions, ‘dam com’ (low price).
