Tag: Bangladesh

Dhaka, Bangladesh – Indonesia-based financial wellness platform wagely has announced that it has added up US$8.3m in funding from their oversubscribed pre-series A funding, which will be used to help workers access their earned salaries on demand in Bangladesh, in addition to their local Indonesian market.

The funding round was led by East Ventures (Growth Fund) with participation from existing backers, including Integra Partners, the Asian Development Bank, Global Founders Capital, Trihill Capital, Blauwpark Partners, and 1982 Ventures.

Wagely’s funding follows their latest expansion to Bangladesh, to which CEO and co-founder Tobias Fischer said that they are honoured to offer their financial wellness platform to leading apparel manufacturers in Bangladesh, including SQ Group, Classic Composite, and Vision Garment.

“We are proud to be successfully operating in two of the largest markets in Asia, employing more than 150 million workers. Instant access to salary plays a pivotal role in reducing costs for employers and increasing the productivity and well-being of workers,” Fischer said.

The platform also disclosed that it secured the backing of Central Capital Ventura, the VC arm of Indonesia’s largest private bank, Bank Central Asia (BCA). The investment into wagely underpins the commitment to expand the digital financial ecosystem and drive financial wellness solutions across Indonesia.

Launched in 2020, wagely is building a holistic financial wellness platform with earned wage access (EWA) at its core that lets workers of partner employers access their earned wages in real-time.

In addition, the new capital will enable the company to accelerate its market-leading position in Indonesia and Bangladesh and spur the development of its holistic financial wellness platform, which the company plans to start rolling out later this year.

Dhaka, Bangladesh – SHAREit Group, the global internet technology company, mainly dedicated to mobile internet application development and digital services, is set to bolster its business in the Bangladesh market to fulfill the diverse demands of the people in the country.

According to a report by Dhaka Tribune, the number of internet users in Bangladesh has increased by 19%, totaling 7.7 million between 2020 and 2021. In January 2021, there were 47.61 million internet users and the Internet penetration in the country stood at 28.8%.

SHAREit, which owns the flagship product, SHAREit app, aims to double down on the highly engaged digital audience in the country. The company said that while there is a vastly increasing number of internet users in Bangladesh, the development of internet channels and resources is rather slow, and therefore opening up the need for a rapid and reliable internet application.

The SHAREit app offers opportunities for users to access a platform that enables online streaming videos, file transfer facilities, as well as applications aimed at gaming, entertainment, and personalized digital content. 

Starting mainly from offering a file transfer app, SHAREit group has since branched out to offering brand marketing, digital advertising, and entertainment solutions. SHAREit offers a wide inventory for advertisers and has also performance advertising solutions to drive installs for brands and gaming apps. In addition, SHAREit offers in-game advertising and payment solutions. 

“Over the years, our growth as a platform for marketing and entertainment as well as the meteoric rise of total users has been phenomenal. Now that we have many users in Bangladesh, we want to strengthen our business in this country to partner with local and global apps and serve our users in more enhanced ways,” said Karam Malhotra, partner and global vice president of SHAREit. 

The SHAREit group has mapped out plans to cater to the digital entertainment, brand marketing, and advertising solution needs of the country. This is expected to benefit the users in multi-faceted ways as it comes as an alternative channel for brand marketing as well. 

According to SHAREit, its presence is now at 200 countries and is available in 45 languages. Currently, SHAREit Group has its offices in various regions in the world, including Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, and the United Arab Emirates, among others. 

Bangladesh – Not all the time do you see a tender by a country’s securities and exchanges commission for mainstream work such as marketing and communications, but the country of Bangladesh has officially expressed its desire to front its economic development and capital market in the global arena, according to the tender document itself, released by the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) Sunday, 18 July. 

According to the tender, BSEC is looking to engage Bloomberg Media, one of the leading providers of business and financial news content globally, to be able to reach diversified investors through a global campaign. BSEC said that it wants to present its potential and economic development and growth record of accomplishment in terms of capital market to attract investors from foreign nationals. 

BSEC has been continuously developing the country’s capital market to make it the main source of long-term financing. In growing its bond market, it has already introduced new products such as Exchange Traded Funds, Venture Capital, Private Equity, and Impact Funds. 

The contract offered by BSEC will run for 16 months. Specifically, it is on the lookout for entities to “supply integrated marketing and communication services” to position the country in Bloomberg’s media and digital platform. 

The commissioned marketing work will run under the banner ‘The Rising of Bengal Tiger: Potentials of Bangladesh Capital Market’. Under the campaign, Bloomberg Media will create content for television, print, and digital media, furthermore, it will be partnered to host a content hub for Bangladesh on its website to support the country. 

During the said period, BSEC has already planned to organize a series of roadshows through its own arrangement in different parts of the world to portray a ‘Rising Bangladesh’ and its capital market as an attractive place for foreign investment “with better returns.” 

For the success of the campaign, BSEC said it would be needing services from a reputed marketing and communication agency that will act as a primary service provider in creating a dedicated campaign-specific content portal. The said portal will include roadshow registration facilities, news updates, upcoming event details, queries, and feedback, and will utilize all contents for TV, print, and digital media prepared by Bloomberg Media.

Bangladesh – DataBird, Bangladesh’s leading Internet group, has recently raised US$3M in funding led by Skycatcher, a global Internet and software investor. Previously, the company raised a seed round of US$4M in 2018, its founding year. 

DataBird is the parent firm of Bangladesh’s leading brands in online travel with travel booking platform ShareTrip and in communication with mobile typing app Ridmik Keyboard. According to DataBird, ShareTrip obtains about 50% of the market share in the country’s online travel, while Ridmik Keyboard is said to be Bangladesh’s most used app and adopted by the majority of all smartphone users in the country.

Kashef Rahman, CEO of DataBird, shared that the additional investment will go into expanding its ecosystem footprint with investments into fintech and digital advertising. With this, DataBird will also be continuing to invest and nurture homegrown talent in Bangladesh, with the company now having over 160 employees. 

Tanveer Ali, board member of DataBird, said, “We are in this for the marathon ahead so one of the most important objectives for us is to invest into our team members to expand their skillsets. The real opportunity in a nascent market like Bangladesh is the knowledge transfer that can happen by studying Internet business models globally. We are really proud of how well our team has executed in the past few years and our bar is world-class products.” 

The company said that building an Internet giant takes time and requires laser focus, and that it is inspired by the cultures of Asia’s leading tech ecosystem giants like Tencent, SEA group, and Kakao who operate with decentralized teams on building a product. 

Sadia Haque, CCO of DataBird, said, “We believe we offer a unique culture in the local context of Bangladesh and are always actively recruiting talent locally or diaspora from abroad who want to come to Dhaka and make an impact.”

Aside from its flagship online travel and keyboard platform, DataBird’s product portfolio expands to news, eReader, and lifestyle mobile applications, and that it is aiming to invest to more with the aim of accelerating the development of ‘Digital Bangladesh’, the country’s political vision of the country for the year 2021, the nation’s golden jubilee. 

Sia Kamalie, Skycatcher founder, said that together with DataBird, it is playing a different game and that the company’s investment horizon can be ‘forever’ and that plans will be in tandem with where the world is headed by 2030. 

“For us, it’s clear that Bangladesh Internet ecosystem will be exponentially bigger than today when you consider that it’s the 8th largest country in world by population, growing GDP at +8% for last decade, and we estimate smartphone penetration is only 40% today. In the next few years, we expect another 50 to 75m smartphone users coming online for the first time and DataBird will be there to serve all their needs,” said Kamalie.

Dhaka, Bangladesh – OBHAI, the locally-based ridesharing application, has expanded its online services to WhatsApp, tapping on the communication app’s ease of use and application to all walks of life.

The new WhatsApp integration fits the accessibility bill, as WhatsApp has 1.5 billion monthly active users around the globe, and 22% or around 40 Million users in Bangladesh.

“As Bangladesh marches forward towards a more sophisticated digital era, the masses are now more accustomed to having the world at the palm of their hands. As such, the frequency of communication via social media platforms, the likes of Facebook, Viber, WhatsApp etc. are increasing significantly,” the company said in their press statement.

It added, “Keeping the need and comfort of the citizens of Bangladesh in mind, OBHAI edged a step ahead and introduced its own WhatsApp service to complement its ride-sharing offerings, and to provide passengers a more personalized experience.”

Through the OBHAI app, users can book the OBHAI G (car), CNG (three-wheeler), or OBHAI Express (parcel) on WhatsApp. Commuters can save +8801313201222 in their address book as ‘OBHAI WhatsApp’ to which they will type ‘Hi’, as automated replies will pop up, to which one would simply punch in the corresponding number to their needed service.

“WhatsApp OBHAI booking will help a lot of OBHAI users to simply order an OBHAI Gari, OBHAI CNG, and even order OBHAI Express services in few keystrokes,” said Anis Ahmed, startup founder and investor at OBHAI.

OBHAI WhatsApp can be used by current OBHAI customers seamlessly, and all facilities including refund requests, complaints, billing, reviewing ride history, and suggestions will be available within minutes from OBHAI call center representatives.

The ridesharing app has existing services across 53 cities in Bangladesh.