DataBird, a Bangladeshi company building an inclusive internet ecosystem with products across online travel, news, Bangla keyboard, eReader, and lifestyle mobile applications for our community – celebrates the winning of 6 innovative ideas at the Grand Finale of DataBird LaunchPad 2021, an innovation platform by DataBird to support young innovators solving problems with technology- in partnership with ICT Division, LICT Bangladesh, Durbar, The Daily Star and BASIS, said a press release.
The champion from the professional track, ‘Remotely’ received grant money of BDT 15 Lac. The first runner-up ‘Edutech’, and the second runner-up ‘Tinkers Technology Limited’ received grant money of BDT 10 Lac and BDT 5 Lac respectively, to take their innovations forward. The winner ‘Kori’, the runner-up ‘Webel’ from the student track were awarded two MacBooks and two windows laptops, respectively. The second runner-up ‘Ku Aspire’ was awarded two smartphones for their significant performance. The honorable mentions ‘Trimatrik’ and ‘Mainly Coding’ received a crest and a certificate for their efforts.
Zunaid Ahmed Palak MP, Honourable State Minister, ICT Division, graced the Grand Finale as the Chief Guest, on 7th October 2021, Thursday, 3:00 PM – 4:30 PM at BCC Auditorium, ICT Division, Dhaka. Dr. Sazzad Hossain, Member, UGC, Bangladesh; Md. Mezbaul Haque, GM, Payment Systems Department, Bangladesh Bank; Sami Ahmed, Policy Advisor, LICT; Kashef Rahman, CEO, DataBird; and Sadia Haque, CCO, DataBird were present to support the future innovators.
Mr. Zunaid Ahmed Palak, State Minister of ICT Division said that they were at a very crucial point for catching up with the fourth industrial revolution. According to him, to be a prosperous, developed, poverty-free, and equitable nation, the next two decades will require unprecedented innovations by local talents, and at DataBird LaunchPad, professionals and students from all over Bangladesh have showcased how keen they are to help the country in this monumental cause. As he concluded, he congratulated the lucky winners.
Mr. Kashef Rahman added, “The key idea behind the inception of DataBird LaunchPad 2021 was to identify and incubate ideas that will solve problems for the nation with the help of technology. In the last few months, DataBird nurtured talented individuals who are gifted with unique ideation and business strategies infused with technology. Whereas over 350 teams participated in the LaunchPad 2021, it is concluded with the winners being declared from both Student and Professional track.”
As a platform for young innovators to present their digitally-enabled solutions to problems, LaunchPad 2021 by DataBird initiated its journey in July 2021. This chapter of LaunchPad attracted over 350 teams of 1000 innovators from all across Bangladesh, including 23 women entrepreneurs. The ideas developed by the participants from both tracks represented diverse industries, such as Edutech, FinTech, HealthTech, SaaS, Travel, Agro, Blockchain, Marketplace, AR, VR, IoT, etc.
Divided into two segments: student and professional track, the competition consisted of several rounds- from registration, idea and project submission, and the screening test to the final presentation. After a rigorous assessment process at multiple rounds, the expert judges from local and international ecosystems have selected the top-most practical and investable ideas that met specific market demand, technological aspects, presentation, execution, and other criteria.
From business planning to the risk and capital management, marketing, supply chain and resource management, and technology concerns, participants obtained invaluable insights and remarks from the judges enabling them to make their ideas more efficient, productive, and feasible.
To accelerate the vision of Digital Bangladesh, DataBird LaunchPad aims to build an inclusive internet ecosystem that nurtures young change-makers solving problems for the nation- towards a better tomorrow.
