4 Bangladeshi Startups HandyMama, Amar Lab, SWAP, and DoctorKoi Make it among Accelerating Asia’s 11 high-potential startups 

Accelerating Asia, the Singapore-based international accelerator VC for pre-Series A startups, has announced its fourth cohort of 11 high-growth startups from Southeast Asia and the South Asia region. Accelerating Asia is the leading startup engagement platform that connects investors, partners and clients to the best startups in Asia and beyond through acceleration, investment opportunities and engagement.

The 11 startups have raised over USD 4 million and Bangladeshi startups have been a regular presence in the Accelerating Asia’s accelerator program. This year out of 11 startups in the cohort, 4 are from Bangladesh; Amar Lab, DoctorKoi, HandyMama, and SWAP.

Amar Lab is a healthcare startup that provides on-demand diagnostic services. The company is partnering with top local and international diagnostic labs to provide end-to-end diagnostics test services like, sample collection to testing to report delivery directly from patients that actually saving time, money and other hassles for patients. Amar Lab has served over 10,000 diagnostic tests and also provides COVID-19 tests. 

DoctorKoi is a health-tech company that offers prescription writing software allowing a doctor to write a prescription from a database of 27,000 medications within just a few clicks. Currently, DoctorKoi is working with over 1300 doctors and has partnered with top pharmaceutical companies and processed over 2.6M digital prescriptions.

“We have been following Accelerating Asia for a while because the cohorts they have been working with in the country have been doing statistically well. It’s a great opportunity for us to be getting this global exposure, in terms of fundraising, networking or even global expansion. As a team, we’re really excited about this”, said Sadman Soeb, co-founder and CEO of DoctorKoi. ” 

HandyMama is the first and leading professional cleaning and handyman services platform in Bangladesh. It is connecting its customers with trustworthy and verified service providers through their mobile app, web app and even with their call center. HandyMama already provided its services to over 100,000 households so far and its vision is to serve a million households by 2025. The farm has employed over 500 people full-time and 3000 part-time.

SWAP is the first cross-category exchange platform for users to sell or swap their old phone, laptop, car, motorcycle, furniture in just 24 hours. With over 25,000 clients served in 12 months, SWAP has helped to save 36 metric tons of e-waste and 694 metric tons of carbon emissions. 

“We are on the verge of securing funds from investors and VCs in Singapore as well as Bangladesh. We want to use it to ensure more growth in the future. We want to reduce waste and increase the affordability of the people simultaneously”, shared Md. Parvez Hossain, CEO & MD, SWAP. 

“We also want to help all other e-commerces in Bangladesh in reducing carbon emissions. We plan to have a lot of collaborations. We are already collaborating with companies like Peekaboo and Daraz. Hopefully, with Accelerating Asia’s assistance and guidance, we will be able to build an ecosystem for the e-commerces and the people”, he added.

The farm is working as a C2B marketplace and has established buyback partnerships with Samsung, OnePlus, OPPO, Apple, and Suzuki. 

From the beginning of Accelerating Asia’s accelerator program have seen Bangladeshi startups to take part in the program. In its first cohort, the accelerator program has two startups from Bangladesh, the second cohort has five startups from Bangladesh, the third cohort has only one and this year, in the fourth cohort there are four companies from Bangladesh.