This year’s GP Accelerator to have 6 start-ups onboard

Grameenphone has recently on-boarded the seventh batch of 'GP Accelerator' to provide six start-ups with investment readiness support such as company valuation, fundraising, legal paperwork for expanding beyond borders and attracting investment.

Telecom Minister Mustafa Jabbar was present at the virtual event as the chief guest, the leading mobile phone operator said a statement.

This year, the GP Accelerator curriculum has been designed to emphasise growth, going global and business expansion with three investment partners—IDLC, Anchorless, Bangladesh Angel Network—to equip the start-ups to secure international funds.

The programme aims to explore business expansion opportunities through business incorporation to the global market from Bangladesh and ensure 10X growth potential for start-ups, according to the statement.

"It is very optimistic to witness so many diversely talented minds putting their best to come up with something different. This is the spirit that we need to carry Bangladesh forward in a digitally enabled era," the minister said.

"I want to congratulate all the start-ups in the GP Accelerator Batch 7, and also thank Grameenphone for keeping up with this brilliant initiative."

The selected start-ups are Airwrk, an invite-only global talent marketplace for Bangladeshi software developers with integrated payment systems; Gameof11, a fantasy gaming platform; iPage, a startup democratising value-added data to the farmers and FMCGs for a higher return using machine learning, data science, and ai; Lilac, a holistic digital wellness platform for women's health and hygiene; One thread, a project management solution, and On now, an internet restaurant platform that aims to empower over 600,000 SME restaurants in emerging markets.

Grameenphone CEO Yasir Azman was also present at the programme.