Toru Impactor: Building an Inclusive Bangladesh 

P

eople connected with startups know very well that impactors are inseparable parts of startups. Impactor, like toru impactor, offers opportunities to people for knowing more about startups and be more efficient. 

“Toru Institute for Inclusive Innovation” is one of the most helpful organisations for startups in Bangladesh. Saif Kamal, a former media executive of English Daily Dhaka Tribune, founded this Institute in 2014.

Toru Institute introduces itself by the opening definition, “an institution for learning and innovation for inclusive growth for the 4th industrial revolution”. Many popular and successful companies like Sheba.xyz, iFarmer, 10 Minutes School, Delegram, Shop, etc. are counted in the portfolio of this Institute.

In 2018, Toru Institute had launched an incubation program of eight months to provide guidelines to the new startups. Microsoft Bangladesh and Standard Chartered Bank support this program. And this program is organised with the association of Anisul Huq Foundation, IPDC, North South University, Daily Star, and Startup Bangladesh.

Toru Institute had ambitions to help the early stage startups through this program so that they could transform their ideas or early formed products into a minimum viable product (MVP) and be successful.

The program involved individually tailored roadmaps, supplement with expert advice on areas ranging from product design to business, legal, and investment support. While launching the impactor, Saif Kamal, the founder of Toru said that “This program will be the first-of-its-kind in Bangladesh.

We have always had accelerator programs or competitions, but ideas need extensive and long-term support in order to become an impactful enterprise.” And Chairperson of Anisul Huq Foundation, Rubana Huq said about the impactor that, “Talented young people in our country are scattered.

We have been unable to stand beside them and develop their talent. We have failed to show the youngsters our dreams. But where we have failed, the young people will succeed.” She added, “This is where the Impactor program comes in. It provides both the means and the “know-how” to support the entrepreneurs in every step of the way.”

The Whole Process Of Toru Impactor

At first, the interested entrepreneurs applied for joining the impactor. Then 10 teams were selected for taking part through an intense selection process. Each of the selected teams received three lakh taka as an equity-free investment.

At the end of the program, three teams received 7 lakh equity-free investments. They also received certain facilities like –

• Tailor-made enterprise building supports
• Mentorship from subject matter experts
• Free workspace from Startup Bangladesh at the ministry of information communication and technology. 
• Access to a network of investors

The characteristics of this impactor are given below –

• This impactor is divided into 8 categories – 1. Healthcare, 2. Agriculture, 3. Finance, 4. Job Creation and Livelihood, 5. Gender Equality, 6. Water and sanitation, 7. Education, 8. Clean Energy.
•  Some selected teams get funding up to 10 lakh throughout two stages
• Each startup receives a tailor-made support program
• Startup Bangladesh provides to the participant’s free workspace 
• The teams receive subject matter expert’s mentorship

Toru Impactor helped many talented young people of Bangladesh in the transformation of their ideas, products, or businesses. Staying inside the growing local startup ecosystem, they contributed a lot to the imminent needs of entrepreneurs .

They paved the way for young blood to build sustainable businesses. They always aimed at building an ecosystem that is organically built to support the best minds of the generation to build innovations.