Bangladesh Angels

Sharawwat Islam has been leading the Truvalu Bangladesh team for the last 3 years. With more than 15 years of work experience in well-known investment banks and banks in Bangladesh, Sharawwat joined Truvalu in 2018 from her passion to work with impact investments. She is responsible for the overall country operations of Truvalu Bangladesh and also represents Truvalu in the Boards of investee companies.

In the latest episode of our Women Startup Leaders series, she outlines her career and her experience in managing an international investment firm in Bangladesh, and the growth potential of key sectors such as agritech.

Naushaba Salahuddin is the Director, Head of PR & Communications at Zilingo - the largest B2B e-commerce ecosystem in Southeast Asia and South Asia, having raised over $308 million in funding to date.

She is a Communications Specialist and has worked across a spectrum of companies ranging from multinationals to startups. With experience spanning international markets and sectors including development, finance, technology, retail, and travel, her highly adaptable nature coupled with a strong understanding of global markets, make her an ideal leader with the foresight to predict industry trends and devise communication strategies. 

In this episode with the BAN community, Naushaba shares her experience in building a career on how to leverage strategic branding and PR as a competitive advantage.

Nitida Wongthipkongka is passionate about social impact and improving the quality of lives around the world. She is currently a Venture Director at Rippleworks, a foundation focused on helping high-impact ventures scale. She works with CEOs, investors, and other partners to help ventures tackle their current challenges to enable them to expand their impact and scale. Prior to Rippleworks, Nitida developed and supported social ventures with SC Johnson, Water & Sanitation for the Urban Poor (WSUP), and with other non-profit organizations in Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. She also has deep private sector experience through her roles at Boston Consulting Group, Novartis, Kraft Foods, and ExxonMobil. 

Sayma Rahman is an active startup mentor, investor, and advisor, with companies such as Thrive Edtech and Jobike under her portfolio. An INSEAD and North South University alumna, Sayma has held several positions of leadership across top organizations in Bangladesh. Her expertise and experience across digitalization, partnerships, retail modernization, product development, projects, intrapreneurship & angel investing make her an asset to any startup founder. 

Hear from her on her journey, as a third culture kid growing up in the Middle East, to coming back to Bangladesh and helping to set up partnerships with major international tech companies and startups for the largest telco in Bangladesh.  She also details how she has applied her lessons and skills from the corporate world to advising and investing in startups. Finally, she shares tips on personal finance and angel investing for other corporate executives looking to explore this asset class.

Rezwana Khan is the CEO of Star Computer Systems, a technology company working on enterprise application solutions, development & implementation, high skilled tech resource development, managed service and cyber security. 

Educated in Computer Science, Software Engineering and in Advanced Management Programme, Ms. Khan started working with her company and has been doing Professional Consultancy for leveraging ICT to support different industry & Government. Her expertise include strategic planning & growth, technology upgrade, team building and change management.

Investment Portfolio:

Ms. Sylvana Q. Sinha, Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Praava Health, is a Bangladeshi-American lawyer and entrepreneur. Ms. Sinha built Praava Health from scratch after experiencing the challenges facing the Bangladeshi health system first-hand. Praava’s “brick-and-click” healthcare platform integrates digital health and in-clinic experiences convenient to where everyone lives, works, and clicks. Tripling growth every year since launching in 2018, Praava’s tech-forward model is designed to be efficient, accessible, and scalable across emerging markets, where 85 percent of the world live. In 2020, Praava was recognized by Fast Company as a World Changing Idea. Praava Health is a patient-driven company disrupting the standard for healthcare for Bangladesh’s 170 million citizens. Ms. Sinha is Life Member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a graduate of Columbia Law School, Harvard's Kennedy School, and Wellesley College.

In this episode, Karen Contet, co-founder of WHub.io - Hong Kong's biggest startup community and power connector, and co-founder & CEO of AngelHub, dives into investing in growth-stage tech companies scaling or established in Asia. Karen is also the founding board member of the FinTech Association of Hong Kong. Immersed in the startup scene, she is a French Foreign Trade Advisor, Community Leader for Techstars, Accelerator Programs Mentor, International Conference Speaker (InspireFest2018 in Dublin, JS conference in Singapore, Vivatech in France, RISE in Hong Kong), FrenchTech Ambassador, and WomenWhoCodeHK Founder. 

Bangladesh Angels is the nation’s first and angel investment network created with a mission to nurture innovation & entrepreneurship in Bangladesh by connecting innovative startups to both local & global investors. In this episode, Anita Ghazi Rahman, who has been a constant mentor to the burgeoning Bangladeshi startup ecosystem since its inception, will walk us through the legal aspects of startup investing.