Startup Bangladesh Limited, the flagship venture capital fund of the ICT Division, on Tuesday announced that it has cancelled a Tk 5 crore investment proposal for 10 Minute School, the largest edutech platform in Bangladesh.
The decision was shared on Startup Bangladesh’s verified Facebook page in a post. It was reposted by State Minister for Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology Zunaid Ahmed Palak on his own verified page.
“Startup Bangladesh Limited has rejected the investment proposal of Tk 5 crore for 10 Minute School,” Palak posted.
Later in the day, responding to a question on the issue at an event at the secretariat, the state minister told reporters said, “We [Startup Bangladesh] are an investment firm, we have some non-disclosure agreements. We receive hundreds of applications for investment.
“From there, we invested in 36 companies worth Tk 120 crore. About 50 more companies are in the process of investing.”
“But we actually have contracts, whether we invest there or not, we cannot disclose the information that we have between us and them,” he added.
Palak also said, “We have some restrictions. If we publish anything negative on why we cancelled this proposal of 10 Minute School, it will go to other investors or may have further impact in the future.
“So if we publicly say or reveal the reason why we did not give it, it actually falls into our moral breach of contract. That is why we would say that we as an investment institution cannot [disclose or give] any explanation for the cancellation of the investment proposal.”
This move, however, came amid the ongoing protests demanding reform of the quota system in government jobs. And Ayman Sadiq, co-founder and CEO of 10 Minute School, has publicly supported the protestors’ demands for quota reform.
Ayman posted a status on Facebook on Monday in favour of the quota reform movement and protesting the violent attack on the protesters.
“We demand quota reform. Merit should be the biggest quota,” he also posted on Facebook on Saturday, using the hashtag #QuotaMovement.
Ayman was unavailable for comments over the phone on Tuesday.
