GP Accelerator launches 6th Batch of Startups

Grameenphone Accelerator (GPA) has initiated its 6th batch of startups for a 4.5-month-long program through a launching event on November 6, 2019 at GP House. The program is designed with the idea of future entrepreneurs in mind and it will focus on selecting the best startups who will be able to leverage the GPA resources to accelerate their companies.

GPA has received 1100+ applications for its batch 6 (Pre-Accelerator-476, Accelerator- 645) in just a span of three weeks. After a rigorous screening process, 45 teams were called for Team Interviews with Due diligence (legal papers & one-on-one meet up with founder & all co-founders). From which (35) startups were selected for further rounds of assessment and pitch presentations. Finally, after fierce competition, nine extremely promising companies were selected as Batch 6 in the GP Accelerator program.

On this occasion, Minister of State for Information and Communication Technology Division, Zunaid Ahmed Palak said, “Within 2021, more than one million jobs will be created and these start-ups will be one of the catalysts in achieving our goal. The government will continue its support for these youth. I have been thrilled and inspired witnessing the innovative GP Accelerator projects. I thank Grameenphone for creating such a platform for the youth”.
Michael Foley, CEO, Grameenphone said, “In this era of digitization, it is important for us to step up and be a part of the change that is inevitable. Through GP Accelerator, we are trying to help the developers, innovators, and startups of Bangladesh.”

Grameenphone Accelerator 2.0 has two parts: Pre-Accelerator and Accelerator. Pre-Accelerator is 8 weeks long program which helped the teams to validate their idea along with the unique proposition. It also helped them with training and mentorship to prepare properly for launching their businesses in the market.

The accelerator is the 4.5-month-long program where the team already have their Minimum Viable Product (MVP). These selected teams will get advice from local and foreign mentors, industry experts, and professionals on critical development elements like term sheet, valuation, financial modeling, branding, etc. On top of that, the platform will also help the startups to connect with potential investors to accelerate their businesses. The total value of all the support provided to each team is approximately BDT 6,500,000.

As the operating partners of the accelerator program, Pierre Alain Masson, Co-founder, Seedstars said, “Together with the startup ecosystem in Bangladesh, we are working towards one shared vision: putting Bangladesh on the global startup map. The program is doing a really great job to help the local grow faster.”

The head of Startup Ecosystem-Minhaz Uddin Anwar said, with the huge excitement and humility we look forward to pushing the nine incoming startups of batch-6 #beyondboundaries- both in terms of what problems they are solving and where they are going with their solutions.

The event was attended by Pierre Alain Masson, Co-founder, Seedstars; Tina Jabeen, Investment Advisor, Startup Bangladesh, ICT Division, Bangladesh; Syed Almas Kabir, President, BASIA; Nabila Nawrin, Co-Founder Moar; Yasir Azman, Deputy CEO & CMO of Grameenphone, Michael Foley, CEO, Grameenphone and other officials.

The nine startups which were selected for batch 6 of the program are “Best Price (B2C bidding marketplace)”, Dhaka Cast (solution for diabetic patient), Dorji-e (e-tailor service), Exploit (tourism and hospitality industry), Landknock (Field Force Monitoring Solution), Let’s Furnish (Furniture Rental Platform), Poshapets (IoT based platform solution for all animal needs), AmarStock (one-stop solution for Bangladesh stock market’s investors and institutes), and Shopway (Fastest Digital Distribution Network in Bangladesh).