Experts concerned at a seminar on August 23 said that the government should make venture capital investments only through venture capital firms as they have proper knowledge and expertise in disseminating such funds as against investing directly.
“Government can provide matching funds and other schemes to the venture capital firms like they do in many other countries including Silicon Valley and Singapore.” said Jayesh Parekh, Co-founder of Sony Entertainment Television and Managing Partner of Jungle Ventures while talking about his professional and entrepreneurial journey at the seminar co-organized by TiE Dhaka and Entrepreneurs’ Organization(EO), Bangladesh Chapter. The seminar was held on Tuesday at a restaurant in the capital city.
Hossain Khaled, President, EO Bangladesh and Shameem Ahsan,President, TiE Dhaka were present on the occasion. The event had the participation from over 100 people from several industries, SMEs, government bodies, embassies,corporate and academic institutions and brought together many of the Bangladeshi successful entrepreneurs,TiE Dhaka board members, TiE Dhaka charter members, EO Bangladesh members, investors,incubators, startup mentors, C-level executives, ministers and speakers.
Sanchayan Chakraborty, Partner and Heena Khushalani, Program Manager of Aavishkaar also attended the program. Aavishkaar is a venture capital firm based in India that invest sin micro and small enterprises that increase income in or provide necessary goods and services to rural or semi-urban India. Among others,Sonia Kabir, Former President, TiE Dhaka; Tahsin Aman, Board Director,TiE Dhaka; Md. Zia Uddin, Forum Chair, EO; Eric Chowdhury,Integration Chair, EO; Faatin Haque,GSEA Chair, EO; Naweed Rashid,Forum Co-chair, EO; Omar Mohammad Bhai, Strategic Alliance Chair, EO; Ahad Mohammad Bhai,Marketing Chair, EO were also present.
Hossain Khaled, President of Entrepreneurs’ Organization,Bangladesh Chapter said, “In line with EO Bangladesh’s focus, such events help the entrepreneurs to engage and in attracting global interest. We are hoping entrepreneurs from around the world will also be able to find new opportunities in Bangladesh to do business.”
“Bangladesh is yet to develop a nurturing ecosystem for the young entrepreneurs. Majority of the entrepreneurs struggle in their early years of business while connecting to the right mentors and investors. With these programs from TiE Dhaka we are working to help the budding entrepreneurs create strategic tie-ups-with global investors and mentors. We have also taken an initiative to create an angel investment network. TiE Dhaka will work towards building a strong angel network ecosystem in the country.” said Shameem Ahsan,President, TiE Dhaka.
The speakers added that often when Government makes venture capital funding, it creates bureaucracy and conflicts of interests and more often than not the companies fail. Also the companies that don’t get government funds are usually get deprived from other projects or supports.
Jayesh is an active global angel investor and venture capitalist based in Singapore. Jayesh is also a co-founder of Sony Entertainment Television, a major television network launched in collaboration with Sony Japan. Prior to that he spent over 12years at IBM in various senior technical and marketing positions-based in Houston and Singapore, and was a part of the team that brought IBM back to India.
Organizers of the event TiE Dhaka and Entrepreneurs’ Organization(EO), Bangladesh Chapter are both part of global non-profit entrepreneurial organizations best known for networking. TiE was started in Silicon Valley in 1992 by a group of committed entrepreneurs who wanted to give back to the community and foster wealth creation. On the other hand, founded in 1987 by a group of young entrepreneurs, EO enables business owners to learn from each other,leading to greater business success and an enriched personal life.■
