68 startups join Huawei ICT Incubator Boot Camp

A three-day boot camp has been organised at Dhaka for the 68 startups selected in the 1st round of Huawei ICT Incubator programme. The camp of this competition in partnership with Startup Bangladesh Limited and Innovation Design and Entrepreneurship Academy (iDEA) has been focused to train the participants on how to launch and make their business sustainable.

This bunch of startups has been shortlisted by Startup Bangladesh Limited and iDEA from a total of 180 applications. The screening has been done based on business idea (pitch deck), team formation, feasibility and traction.

During the three-day programme, the shortlisted startups have attended various sessions on startup ideation and validation, go-to-market and scaling, growth marketing, how to develop product and how to get feedback on product, how to set financial strategy and how to do financial analysis, hiring and onboarding team members, sales strategy and negotiation, developing customer base, legal and ethical issues, fundraising, how to adapt emerging technologies, and KPI tracking and valuation methods.

During the programme Siddartho Goshwami, Senior Consultant, Head of Operations, iDEA, BCC, ICT Division gave the introductory speech and RHM Alaol Kabir, Senior Consultant (Senior Assistant Secretary), iDEA, ICT Division gave the welcome speech. A total of 11 trainers conducted training in the boot camp. The trainers were Minhaz Anwar, Chief Story Teller, Betterstories Limited, Zia Ashraf, COO & Co-Founder, Chaldal Ltd, Munir Hasan, Head of Digital Transformation and Youth Activities, Prothom Alo & President, BDOSN, Ahmed Fahad, Vice President (Product), Pathao Ltd, Bijon Islam, CEO, Light Castle Partners, Ismat Jahan, Head of HR, eGeneration Ltd, Ilmul Haque Sajib, COO, Sheba xyz Ltd, Mushfique Manzoor, MD & Co-Founder, OpenRefactory & Champion, BIG 2021, Barrister ABM Hamidul Misbah, Managing Partner, Old Bailey Chambers & Founder, Bangladesh IP Forum, Mir Shahrukh Islam, MD, Bondstein Technologies Ltd, Mohi Zaman, Principal, Anchorless Bangladesh.

With an inspiration to develop ICT talent ecosystem in Bangladesh Huawei has been working for a long time in this country. In that regards, Huawei launched the programme on 15 June 2022 to nurture the local startups and ICT talents of Bangladesh. ICT incubator is divided into two criteria – Idea Stage and Early Stage. In Both criteria total 6 startups will be announced as winners. The champions will get up to BDT 500,000 prize money, CEO will get chance to meet successful startup at abroad & up to USD 125k Huawei Cloud credit. 1st and 2nd runner up will consecutively get up to BDT 300,000 & up to BDT 100,000 prize money. Both the runner ups’ CEO will also get the chance to meet successful Startup at abroad with USD 80k Cloud Credit.