GP Accelerator Batch – 7 eyes on beyond border investment

Grameenphone has onboarded the Batch – 7 of its signature national Digital Bangladesh Award-winning startup development initiative, ‘GP Accelerator.’ In this regard, a virtual event was held to launch the country’s first growth-focused accelerator program on February 10, 2022, with a mission to ensure 10X growth potential for startups.

Mustafa Jabbar, Honorable Minister, Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications Division, was present as the Chief Guest. Among other respected attendees were Grameenphone, CEO, Yasir Azman, and distinguished guests from the startup ecosystem, media, mentors, and investors.

This year the GP Accelerator curriculum has been designed to emphasize growth, going global, and business expansion with three investment partners, IDLC, Anchorless, and Bangladesh Angel Network, to equip the startups to secure international funds. The GPA platform will also continue to provide investment readiness support such as company valuation, fundraising, and legal paperwork for expanding beyond borders and attracting investment with a commitment to ensure ten times growth for startups through 6-month-long Bootcamp. The program aims to explore business expansion opportunities through business incorporation to the global market from Bangladesh.

“It is very optimistic to witness so many diversely talented minds putting their best to come up with something different. This is the spirit that we need to carry Bangladesh forward in a digitally enabled era. I want to congratulate all the startups in the GP Accelerator Batch 7, and also thank Grameenphone for keeping up with this brilliant initiative”, said Mustafa Jabbar, Honorable Minister, Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications Division.

“Grameenphone has recently received the prestigious national ‘Digital Bangladesh Award 2021’ for its contribution to the development of the country’s start-up ecosystem through its flagship initiative “GP Accelerator“. Such recognition encourages and inspires us to be more committed to our goal of achieving a self-sustained and knowledge-based economy,” said Yasir Azman, CEO of Grameenphone. “To reiterate our purpose of truly empowering the nation, Grameenphone believes in taking a youth-first approach, instilling digital entrepreneurship mindset, enabling them to think global, upskilling and reskilling them with industry-first initiatives like such to enable and unleash the potential of the demographic dividend into future drivers of economic progress, ultimately taking the nation towards realizing its Digital Bangladesh vision and tap into the 4IR opportunities,” he added.

Earlier in 2021, a partnership deal had been signed between Grameenphone and the three pioneering startup ecosystems shapers of Bangladesh – BetterStories Ltd, LightCastle Partners, and Upskill – to deliver the GP Accelerator program that supports the “global-first” Bangladeshi startups born through Covid-19.

Since its inception in 2015, the GP Accelerator program has worked closely with promising local startups, developers, and innovators to facilitate strategic and infrastructural resources. Grameenphone came up with this formulated approach to support early-stage tech startups through a curriculum-based initiative that provides grant funding, expert mentorship, curated access to GP assets, access to investors, and more.

This year, the startups to receive the exclusive opportunity to be groomed under GP Accelerator’s 7th cohort are:

1. Airwrk – Airwrk is an invite-only talent marketplace connecting Bangladeshi tech talents with full-time remote jobs from all over the world.
2. Gameof11 – GameOf11 is a daily fantasy platform where you can show your sports analysis skills and get rewarded. Fantasy sport means the ultimate engaging experience for fans and our mission is to build an online sports ecosystem for every sports fan of Bangladesh.
3. iPage – iPAGE is an AgriTech startup enabling small farmers to connect with the agri-value chain using data, machine learning, and AI. It is working to create an inclusive market system where smallholder producers can effectively avail of inputs and services to optimize their production practice per market demand.
4. Lilac – Lilac’s aim is to provide support to women through online health consultation and an E-Shop containing diverse products for women’s health and wellbeing.
5. OneThread – Onethread helps companies manage their projects with the easiest-to-learn solution in the market. We offer the most affordable pricing so that companies can adapt technologies to make their workflow smoother.
6. Onnow – Onnow (অন্ন) is an internet restaurant platform that aims to empower over 600,000 SME Restaurants in Emerging Markets to survive against tough competition from large restaurant chains by giving them access to their proprietary and popular virtual menu concepts, training, supply chain, and technology.

GP Accelerator has completed 6 cohorts with 44 startups, creating 5 lakh jobs across the nation. Grameenphone has contributed BDT 142 million direct cash through this streak of initiatives, providing total support to each team worth approximately BDT 6.5 million. It has been a patron of possibilities, backing startups like Sheba XYZ, CMED Health, and Parkingkoi to surpass the USD 5 million valuation mark. Among its other reputed alumni startups are Dhakacast, Cramstack, and Doctorkoi.

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