Bangladesh Angels and its sister chapter Bangladesh Women Investors Network is proud to partner with USAID, DAI, Singapore-based early stage accelerator and investor Accelerating Asia and angel networks and accelerators from across the region to launch WeScale, the first cross-regional accelerator in South Asia focused on women-led companies who want to raise their first funds.
Nirjhor Rahman, the Founder of Bangladesh Angels will lead the Global Business Angels Network (GBAN) Field Call during GEW 2022. He will share how the program works, its goals to empower women entrepreneurs in the region, and ultimately how it will advance the availability of early-stage risk capital.
WeScale is a Digital Frontiers program, part of South Asia Regional Digital Initiative (SARDI) by the USAID’s Innovation, and Research (ITR) Hub, Technology Division (ITR/T), implemented in partnership with DAI. The consortia also includes SAFAL Partners (Nepal), India Accelerator and Lankan Angel Network.
Last year a series of in-depth interviews conducted by SARDI in Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka revealed a lack of mentorship and support for women entrepreneurs in tech. Interviewees mentioned a strong startup support ecosystem that fades away and leaves businesses lacking mentorship for growth over time and further investment opportunities. In addition, businesses lack the support required to navigate the myriad of digital policies that affect their business operations.
To help address this, the consortium came together to launch a cross regional accelerator that would start with 100 women entrepreneurs, and work with the top 20 to help raise investments.
Check out the recording from the info session on the program that we recently hosted to help prospective applicants and network partners learn more about the application process and the overall program.
Accelerating Asia, as the program lead, has worked with the partners to lay the initial program curriculum and provide localized solutions, which include masterclasses with our Entrepreneurs-in-Residence and Mentors-in-Residence, who are specialists in raising funds, scaling a company, and digital safety and security for businesses - Rohana Wood, Partnerships and Marketing Manager at Accelerating Asia.
We aim to be the leading cross regional platform for getting women entrepreneurs funded. Having worked with 300+ mostly early stage companies in the region and helped invest $70M into them in the last few years, we have the networks and know-how to make it happen - Nirjhor Rahman, CEO of Bangladesh Angels.
“The idea is to create a path to a sustained network for women entrepreneurs in South Asia who can lean on and learn from other successful women entrepreneurs from the region to change the status quo in the gender gap in the tech entrepreneurship sector. By leveraging sustained partnerships across borders, the program will promote engagement with the digital policy environment for the relevant stakeholders ” - Tina Jabeen, Senior Government Policy Consultant at USAID-DAI.
To learn more, please visit: https://wescale-sardi.com