Home ›› 11 Feb 2022 ›› Corporate
Grameenphone (GP) has onboarded batch-7 of its signature national Digital Bangladesh Award-winning startup development initiative, ‘GP Accelerator.’
A virtual event was held in this regard to launch the country’s first growth-focused accelerator programme on Thursday, with a mission to ensure 10X growth potential for startups.
Posts and Telecommunications Division Minister Mustafa Jabbar was present as the chief guest on the digital platform, GP said in a statement.
Grameenphone CEO Yasir Azman and other guests from the startup ecosystem, media, mentors, and investors were also present on the occasion.
This year the GP Accelerator (GPA) curriculum has been designed to emphasize growth, going global, and business expansion with three investment partners, IDLC, Anchorless, 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, legal paperwork for expanding beyond borders, and attracting investment with a commitment to ensure ten times growth for startups through 6 months long bootcamp. The programme aims to explore business expansion opportunities through business incorporation to the global market from Bangladesh.
In his speech, Mustafa Jabbar, “It is very optimistic to witness so many diversely talented minds putting their best to come up with something different. I want to congratulate all the startups in the GP Accelerator Batch 7, and also thank Grameenphone for keeping up with this brilliant initiative.”
Yasir Azman said, “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.”
“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.
