The CEO of Robi Axiata Ltd expressed his enthusiasm for supporting local startups through their digital entrepreneurship program, r-ventures, and remains committed to being a catalyst for their growth. As the second-largest operator in Bangladesh, he is optimistic about the country’s talented entrepreneurs’ ability to tackle real-world challenges.

Robi Axiata Ltd

During a recent interview with The Daily Star, Rajeev Sethi stated that they take immense pride and excitement in facilitating local startups through r-ventures. He believes that Bangladesh has tremendous potential and is confident that a unicorn company will emerge from this market within the next few years.

Robi Rajeev Sethi The CEO of Robi Axiata Ltd acknowledges that the youth in Bangladesh are being empowered to create a Smart Bangladesh with locally developed smart solutions, and the r-ventures program is a perfect fit for this vision.

Originally launched in 2018 to promote digital entrepreneurship among its employees, r-ventures has since expanded to include startups. The program offers early-stage startups management advisory, mentorship, access to an investor network, and funding opportunities.

According to Sethi, the strength of r-ventures lies in its ability to provide potential startups with a solid platform beyond just financial resources.

The third edition of the initiative, known as r-ventures 3.0, will culminate on March 5th with 11 teams competing for the top positions.

Sethi emphasized that Axiata Group and Robi’s core philosophy is to have a positive impact on society and invest in young people who have ideas but lack the necessary resources, both financial and otherwise, to scale up their ventures.

The CEO explained that investing in this area was a worthwhile decision, and the success of r-ventures has surpassed their expectations. The program started small but has grown significantly, as evidenced by the upcoming r-ventures 3.0.

Sethi added that they are proud of their contribution to the startup ecosystem in Bangladesh and have learned a great deal from the experience.

As a result of their efforts, Robi has established the r-ventures private equity fund, which is now registered under the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission. This has significantly increased deserving startups’ chances of securing funding to take their ventures to the next level.

Sethi also highlighted how r-ventures has successfully channeled the energy of the capital market into the startup community through the private equity fund.

Startups such as Shuttle, a mass-transit startup, and AirBringr, a crowd-shipping platform connecting local shoppers with international travelers for cross-border shopping and shipping, have received funding from r-ventures and have seen significant success.

“Shuttle and Airbringr are now big names attracting both local and foreign investors. We started small and supported their growth,” Sethi stated.

However, the CEO acknowledges that Robi Axiata’s role is that of a catalyst, and they cannot achieve success alone. Sethi stressed the importance of other players investing and supporting startups in Bangladesh.

Through r-ventures 1.0 and 2.0, Robi invested over Tk 11.5 crore in 13 startups and has pledged Tk 2.5 crore for r-ventures 3.0.

Sethi also praised the expertise of their partner, SBK Tech Ventures, who serves as the fund manager and general partner of r-ventures. SBK specializes in early-stage digital startups in emerging markets such as Bangladesh and holds an alternate investment fund license from the BSEC.

Moreover, SBK has committed to matching the amount that r-ventures invests in startups, thus increasing the fund available to entrepreneurs to Tk 5 crore.

The chief executive officer of Robi Axiata expressed his satisfaction with the performance of r-ventures portfolio, describing it as “stellar,” with a multiple on invested capital almost four-fold.

The wholly-owned ICT-focused subsidiary of Robi Axiata, RedDot Digital, is serving as the sponsor for the r-ventures fund, and its expertise in evaluating and supporting startups with a digital backbone is invaluable.

Although there are more opportunities for local startups, the CEO believes that the challenge is identifying the right problem, as one good idea may attract ten copycats, which doesn’t work.

He also pointed out that one or two startups usually dominate a specific field or area, like ride-hailing. However, Bangladesh offers ample opportunities in different fields, and he is optimistic about the future of startups in the country, citing the country’s population size and rapid growth in data usage as major factors. Additionally, almost 60% of early-stage startups were funded by investors in Bangladesh last year.

According to Sethi, successful startups in Bangladesh are typically founded by locals who have lived and experienced the challenges faced by the local people.

He emphasizes that the best ideas come from being deeply connected to the target audience and understanding their problems. Sethi believes that importing ideas from other countries will most likely fail to scale up and add value to customers. Therefore, startups must solve real-life problems specific to Bangladesh and be created by Bangladeshis.

“We are thrilled to see such ideas emerging from r-ventures 3.0,” said Sethi.