(MENAFN- Bangladesh Monitor) Dhaka : DataBird is currently the largest and leading internet group of the country with products across online travel, news, keyboard, eReader, and lifestyle mobile applications.
Their services reach more than half of all smartphone internet users today in the country and they are investing into accelerating the development of Digital Bangladesh.
Among their products, ShareTrip is the largest online travel agent for Bangladesh with an online travel agent market share of over 75 per cent. They have introduced the first one-stop mobile app solution for local consumers and now have the largest travel loyalty programme with over +300k members for ShareTrip. Founded in 2014, they are empowering the Bangladeshi consumers for their travel bookings domestically and abroad.
Ridmik is another product of DataBird with over 26 million monthly active users. Ridmik is the most recognised mobile app brand in Bangladesh. DataBird's core brand is Ridmik keyboard which delivers the best Bangla typing experience for your smartphone and is the number one communications app in Bangladesh.
DataBird also has leading apps in news, eReader, and lifestyle categories. Founded in 2012, Ridmik is the leader in the top mobile app consumer brands for Bangladesh.
DataBird has over 160 employees today, and is led by Kashef Rahman, Sadia Haque, and Shamim Hasnath. They are supported by a strategic investment from Skycatcher, a global internet investor and one of the first foreign institutional investors in Bangladesh's venture ecosystem.
Data Bird is a long-term investor and business partner. They are more than just money and approach investments into companies and founders as a true partner who can support operations, marketing, sales, and technology. They leverage their global experience, access to industry leaders, and the ecosystem they have built today to help companies scale quickly. They are strategic in their group decision making and decentralised in their execution.
They are especially passionate about supporting startups and often host events offering grants to support the earliest stage of company building.
Interested parties can apply to the annual DataBird Launchpad event or reach out to DataBird through their website.
Raises USD 3m foreign funds
DataBird has recently raised USD 3 million in funding led by Skycatcher, a global internet and software investor. Earlier, the company raised a seed round of USD 4 million in 2018.
On the occasion, Kashef Rahman, CEO, DataBird, said, "With this additional investment, not only are we being able to strengthen the market position of ShareTrip as a leading OTA in the aviation industry but also, we are expanding our ecosystem footprint with investments into communications, fin-tech and digital advertising. We are fortunate to have value-added partners who go beyond just capital and help shape our strategy."
One of their key products is Ridmik Keyboard. Shamim Hasnath, Ridmik founder and CTO of DataBird, said, "When I first created Ridmik, it was to create a better typing experience for Bangla and English. Now as the clear market leader, we see our brand Ridmik can be much more and become a Super App."
As DataBird expands, it continues to invest and nurture homegrown talent in Bangladesh. Tanveer Ali, Board Member of DataBird, said, "We are in this for the marathon ahead so one of the most important objectives for us is to invest into our team members to expand their skillsets. The real opportunity in a nascent market like Bangladesh is the knowledge transfer that can happen by studying internet business models globally. We are really proud of how well our team has executed in the past few years and our bar is world class products."
Sadia Haque, CCO, DataBird, shared, "We are inspired by the cultures of Asia's leading tech ecosystem giants like Tencent, SEA group, and Kakao where they operate with decentralised teams building product. We believe we offer a unique culture in the local context of Bangladesh and are always actively recruiting talent locally or diaspora from abroad who want to come Dhaka and make an impact."
Building an internet giant takes time and a laser focus on execution. Sia Kamalie, Founder, Skycatcher, said, "We are playing a different game. Our investment horizon can be forever and we think a lot about where the world will be in 2030. For us, it's clear that Bangladesh Internet ecosystem will be exponentially bigger than today when you consider that it's eighth largest country in world by population, growing GDP at over 8 per cent for last decade, and we estimate smartphone penetration is only 40 per cent today. In the next few years, we expect another 50 to 75 million smartphone users coming online for the first time and DataBird will be there to serve all their needs."
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