LightCastle Partners Launches Innovative Finance Toolkit for Financing Early-Stage Impact Enterprises in Bangladesh

A virtual session on ‘Impact Investing in Bangladesh’ was hosted on 15th December 2020 to unveil the current status and impact investing opportunities in Bangladesh.

LightCastle Partners and Roots of Impact have organized the session in partnership with Biniyog Briddhi, Bangladesh Angels, SBK Tech Ventures, Startup Bangladesh Limited, and VCPEAB (Venture Capital and Private Equity Association of Bangladesh).

Bijon Islam, CEO of LightCastle Partners, and Maxime Cheng, Programme Manager of Roots of Impact, presented the keynote presentation to showcase the local and global perspectives of Impact Investing.

The global market size of impact investing has grown above USD 500 Billion. Bangladesh has the third most active impact investing market in South Asia after India and Pakistan. DFIs have deployed over USD 830 million to date, while other impact investors have deployed USD 120 million.

The program arranged a panel discussion with reputed speakers, including Sonia Bashir Kabir, Founder & Chairman of SBK Tech Ventures; Shawkat Hossain, General Secretary of VCPEAB; Nirjhor Rahman, Chief Executive Officer of Bangladesh Angels; and Bjoern Struewer, Founder & CEO of Roots of Impact.

“Angel investors can play a critical role as mentors and risk-takers who will work closely with entrepreneurs in the process of finding product-market fit and the critical middle ground between impact, scale, and commercial viability,” said Nirjhor Rahman.

The program unveiled the Innovative Finance Toolkit, a set of alternative structures for financing early-stage impact enterprises in Bangladesh. The toolkit is jointly produced by LightCastle Partners, Roots of Impact, and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation,

Around 80+ delegates, including entrepreneurs, investors, ecosystem builders, and business leaders, joined the session virtually.

Watch the key talking points of the session here.