Business Desk :
Edtech startup Shikho was the only Bangladeshi representative on Forbes Asia’s second edition of its “100 to Watch” list, as part of its spotlights notable small companies and startups on the rise across the Asia-Pacific region.
Regarding the Bangladeshi startup, Forbes Asia said that it was a tutoring platform that prepares students for Bangladesh’s high school exams through live lectures, online mock tests, notes and animations.
The startup estimates it has 500,000 daily users, and its key backers included DSG Consumer Partners, Learn Capital, and Wavemaker Partners, it also said.
“It is really great for the team to get internationally recognized for their efforts, and we are very proud to be representing Bangladesh on the list this year,” said Shahir Chowdhury, co-founder and CEO of Shikho.
Shikho was founded in 2019 and has been building a hyper-localized digital learning ecosystem with a mission to revolutionize learning in Bangladesh.
The startup is focused on democratizing access to high-quality education for learners across the country.
They launched the first version of their mobile learning app in November 2020, and since then, the app has already passed 600,000 downloads on the Google Play Store in only 20 months.
On March 29 this year, the startup had raised $4 million in new seed funding.
This is in addition to the $1.3 million it raised in August 2021, bringing its total round to $5.3 million, the largest seed funding a Bangladeshi startup has raised to date.
Shikho provides academic courses for the Bangladeshi National Curriculum Secondary School Certificate (SSC), Higher Secondary School Certificate (HSC), and competitive university entrance exams.
Using Shikho, a student is able to access unique on-demand animated video lessons; learn by solving a large bank of in-app questions with detailed solutions; track performance and progress using data analytics on a real-time basis; review summarized ‘smart notes’ that include definitions, formulae, proofs and ‘hacks’; and finally, attend live classes with expert tutors.
Students can learn at their own pace with Bengali learning content accessible anytime and anywhere at a fraction of the cost of traditional tutoring services.
Companies on this year’s 100 to Watch list are charting a way forward. Singapore is this year’s leading locale for companies on the list, while biotech and healthcare is the top category, underscoring how the pandemic affected small companies and startups, said Justin Doebele, editor of Forbes Asia.
Fifteen countries and territories are represented across 11 categories that include biotechnology and healthcare, e-commerce and retail, and finance.
Singapore’s startup community contributed 19 companies to the list, followed closely by Hong Kong with 16. South Korea has 15, China has 13 and India has 11 companies on the list.
