Chaldal Secures Significant Investment
Bangladeshi startup Chaldal has secured an additional $4 million in funding, 90% of which comes from foreign investors. The remaining 10% has been sourced from Startup Bangladesh's regular roundup. This marks the second foreign investment of the year for a notable startup in the country, following the $110 million investment in ShopUp, Bangladesh’s leading startup.
Chaldal, an innovative grocery store-based e-commerce platform in Bangladesh, received investments from Y Combinator, Scala, and around 15 other foreign venture capital companies, according to Chaldal's co-founder Wasim Alim. However, he refrained from naming the new investors at this time.
He stated, "The new investment will be entirely used for research and development. We are continuing our efforts to secure more funding."
Chaldal’s other co-founder, Zia Ashraf, mentioned that the company has already raised approximately $35 million to date. He explained, "We have been looking for new investments for a long time. The funds we have received will not be enough for business expansion but will be used to improve inventory and service quality. For this reason, we are now planning to incorporate AI into our web and logistics operations."
Chaldal is also involved with the e-voucher program at the Rohingya camp in Cox’s Bazar and operates in Dhaka, Narayanganj, Chattogram, and Jessore.
To date, Chaldal has received investments from 28 companies through nine funding rounds, collecting over $30 million in total. The largest investment came on September 15, 2021, when it secured $10 million in a Series C round from London’s Exploration Capital. Earlier, in 2020, Chaldal received investments from Razor Capital in its Series B round and from Y Combinator in its Seed round on August 19, 2025.
Additionally, on June 16, 2024, Chaldal secured a major investment of $170,000 from Bangladesh Ventures Capital.
Statistics show that since 2013, the concept of startups has been expanding in Bangladesh. From 2020 to 2021, investments in startups grew by 10 times. Over 95% of the investments in startups come from foreign sources. The majority of these investments, over 70%, are in fintech (financial technology) companies, followed by logistics and mobility at 12.83%, e-commerce and retail at nearly 6%, healthcare at 2.5%, consumer services at 2.24%, and software and technology at 1.73%.
