New Accelerator Launched for Bangladeshi Businesses
DHAKA, Feb. 22 (NsNewsWire) — ScaleUp Bangladesh, a 12-month long investment readiness accelerator programme for Small and Growing Businesses (SGBs), has been announced today at a media launch event in Dhaka. BetterStories Limited, in partnership with IFC and PPCR Bangladesh, and with support from Aavishkar, Grameenphone Accelerator, British Council, PUM.NL and Climate Business Innovation Network will help Bangladeshi businesses to scale, be investment ready and become future proof through this accelerator.
25 Commercially viable businesses with 5-200 employees, hungry for growth and looking to find money to go beyond their current geographic, demographic or business boundaries will be accepted to the programme. Interested businesses can apply for the accelerator ScaleUp Bangladesh via www.scaleupbangladesh.com until 21st March 2018.
ScaleUp Bangladesh will take businesses through a 3-week residential boot camp to help businesses validate their products, redefine branding and digital footprint, firm up financial capabilities and build strong investment stories. Post-boot camp businesses will be connected to expert technical mentors from PUM.NL, climate advisers from CBIN and investors from around the world over a period of 7 months.
The ScaleUp Bangladesh media launch was addressed by Abul Maal A Muhith, Honorable Minister, Ministry of Finance, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh; Harsh Vivek, Operations Officer, IFC South Asia and Project Lead, Pilot Program for Climate Resilience (PPCR) Bangladesh; Minhaz Anwar, Chief StoryTeller, BetterStories Limited; Kazi Mahboob Hassan, Chief Transformation Officer, Grameenphone; Joel Reifman, Deputy Chief of Mission at U.S. Embassy Dhaka and Sharmin Sultana, Bangladesh StartUp Cup 2017 winner from Khulna Division.
Minhaz Anwar, Chief StoryTeller of BetterStories said, “ScaleUp Bangladesh is the brand-new accelerator programme to help the small but growing businesses in Bangladesh maximizes their potential for growth. Years of on-the-ground experience and understanding of the Bangladesh investment ecosystem are the basis for building this accelerator. We are delighted to have IFC as the key partner for the accelerator along with Grameenphone Accelerator, British Council, Aavishkar, PUM.NL, and CBIN.”
ScaleUp Bangladesh comes on the heels of Bangladesh StartUp Cup 2017 which was a partnership between the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Aavishkar India, and BetterStories Asia. It is offering seven bankability boot camps in 7 divisions of the country: Barisal, Chittagong, Khulna, Mymensingh, Rajshahi, Rangpur, Sylhet training 200 SMEs in total.
Bangladesh StartUp Cup and ScaleUp Bangladesh together makes one cycle of ecosystem building work in Bangladesh by BetterStories Limited which it aims to repeat thrice with support from the partners- local and international.press release