Huawei Bangladesh has announced the names of the six winning startups of Bangladesh in the Huawei ICT Incubator 2022 program. In the competition, three winners were selected from these two groups – ‘Idea Stage’ and ‘Early Stage’. InsureCow in the idea stage and Jahajee in the early stage became champions.
In ‘Idea Stage’, Durjoy DSS became the First Runner Up and Relaxy appeared as theSecond Runner Up. And in the Early Stage, Palki became the First Runner Up and Wigro Technologies Limited came up as the Second Runner Up.
State Minister for Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Zunaid Ahmed Palak announced the names of the champions at the Radisson Blue Water Garden Hotel in the capital on Wednesday. While speaking as the Chief Guest, he mentioned that, the artificial intelligence is becoming a simple mathematical solution now a day; the solutions of developing technology in the fourth industrial revolution will become the driving force of the economy. Without mathematics we can do nothing. Doing business in the future will be difficult without artificial intelligence. Agriculture, health and education programs will be impossible without robotics and data analytics skills.
The Minister of State for Information and Communication Technology addressed Pan Junfeng, Chief Executive of Huawei Technologies (Bangladesh) Limited, who was present at the award ceremony, and urged to invest in Bangladesh as the most important potential market. He said, I hope Huawei sets up their assembly plant in Bangladesh. If they manufacture laptops in Bangladesh, it will be easier for us to include them in the government procurement process.
Palak said that in the last 13 years, the ICT department has taken up and implemented three very important projects in joint partnership with Huawei. In 2014, we implemented the InfoGov 2 project and connected 18,000 government offices to the IntraGov network, which has played a groundbreaking role in keeping the country’s state affairs running even during the Covid-19 pandemic. 2.6 thousand Union Digital Centers have been connected with fiber internet under Info Gov3 project. Thanks to which the boys and girls are able to earn foreign currency while sitting in Nalitabari of Sherpur. That’s the beauty of digital transformation.
Besides, Chinese Ambassador Li Ziming, BRAC University Vice-Chancellor Professor Vincent Chang, Ph.D., Startup Bangladesh Managing Director Sami Ahmed and BCC Project Director (Joint Secretary) of ICT Department Md. Altaf Hossain were also present at the event.
In this event, Huawei, the world’s leading ICT infrastructure, technology and service provider, organized the event in collaboration with the strategic partner Startup Bangladesh Limited and Innovation Design and Entrepreneurship Academy (iDEA).
The champion startup will receive 5 lakh taka and 1 lakh 25 thousand US dollars’ worth of Huawei cloud credit as prize. On the other hand, the first and second runners-up will receive Tk. 3 lakh and Tk. 1 lakh respectively in prize money and Huawei cloud credit worth 80 thousand US dollars. Also, one co-founder of each startup will have the opportunity to meet representatives of successful startups outside the country.
About 180 participants applied for the program. A total of 68 startups were selected to participate in the Incubator Boot Camp, divided into two groups, ‘Idea Stage’ and ‘Early Stage’. Boot camps provided them with necessary mentoring and technical training. Later, participants presented their startup ideas to a panel of judges. Based on the verdict of the judging panel, a total of 20 startups from both stages were selected as finalists for the final stage. Ultimately, a total of six startups, including 3 from the Idea Stage and 3 from the Early Stage, were declared winners through this event.
In his speech, H. E. Li Jiming, Ambassador of China to Bangladesh, stated, “China and Bangladesh are important strategic partners of cooperation with each other and share extensive and in-depth cooperation and common interests in various fields. China has been Bangladesh’s largest trading partner for twelve consecutive years since 2010 and ranked among the top sources of FDI. In recent years, Chinese enterprises have expanded their investments in Bangladesh in terms of infrastructure, science, and technology, among which ICT is one of the most remarkable and promising ones. I am confident that the two countries will enjoy more favorable opportunities for cooperation in ICT and foresee much brighter prospects for win-win cooperation.”
Professor Vincent Chang, Ph.D., Vice-chancellor of Brac University, said, “It gives me great pleasure to see that globally leading technology leaders such as Huawei are helping the youth to become truly future-ready. Including this Incubator program, as per my knowledge, Huawei is also running other skill development programs like Seeds For The Future, ICT Skills Competitions here, and also partnering with universities across Bangladesh to build Huawei ICT Academies where the youth can enhance their skills.
Huawei Bangladesh CEO Pan Junfeng said, “For over 23 years, Huawei has been working with the ICT sector, telecom operators, and local partners in Bangladesh. Huawei ICT Incubator is part of our continued efforts to facilitate the country’s young minds by empowering them, training them, and providing them with unmatched opportunities. Throughout the entire program, participants got the chance to learn from industry experts and gained both business and technical knowledge to further refine their ideas. I congratulate all the winners who will be making a difference through their ideas in the near future.”
Sami Ahmed, Managing Director of Startup Bangladesh, said, “It goes without saying that the startup ecosystem in Bangladesh is continuously growing. Startup Bangladesh is working relentlessly to flourish a venture capital ecosystem in the country by providing necessary support to early-stage and Idea-stage startups. This is where we align with this Huawei ICT Incubator program, which also aims to facilitate young startup entrepreneurs. It was a wonderful experience for us as a strategic partner of this program, and we found Huawei as a very collaborative company indeed.”
Md. Altaf Hossain, Project Director of iDEA, shared, “In a world of rapid change, young people are leading the way through the right combination of skills and knowledge. In such a backdrop, an innovation-induced culture can provide Bangladesh with its own fuel to strive forward through young minds. As a strategic partner of Huawei ICT Incubator program, iDEA strongly resonates with Huawei’s philosophy of upskilling the youth and providing them with ample opportunity to thrive.”
Kajal Abdullah, Co-founder and CEO of Jahaji Ltd., said, “We are glad that Bangladesh nurtures a support mechanism for aspiring entrepreneurs. Throughout our journey in this ICT incubator program, we were taken through various training and skill development regimens, which helped us to transform our respective ideas into functional business models. I would like to wholeheartedly thank Huawei, Startup Bangladesh, and iDEA for making this program happen.”