Southeast Asia and South Asia will be the next battle ground of Global giants

“Global players like Amazon, Alibaba,Tencent and Baidu have already started fierce competitions in Southeast Asia and India, and that will eventually spread to the neighboring countries.

If there is no proper preparation and government support for the startups in these countries, including Bangladesh; only some of the leading companies will be acquired by global giants and the remaining thousands of start-ups will be closed.

Only a handful of companies in Bangladesh, such as bKash, Pathao,Chaldal, BAGDOOM.com, Shohoz and Ajkerdeal were able to raise Venture Capital funds. Though such big investors like Bill Gates and Jack Ma have invested in Bangladesh but we are still away from the radar of other global venture capital companies.

Moreover, global VCs are losing opportunities to invest in many promising companies in Bangladesh”, said Shameem Ahsan, General Partner of Fenox Venture Capital and Chairman of eGenerationGroup at the 9th Annual INSEAD Asian Private Equity and Venture Capital Conference in the session titled “The entrance of Chinese giants in South and Southeast Asia”recently at INSEAD campus in Singapore.

Chairman of Venture Capital & Private Equity Association of Bangladesh (VCPEAB) and Director of FBCCI, Shameem Ahsan also added that, “China has committed to invest around 25 billion US dollarsout of which 2 billion dollars will be in IT sector. Bangladesh is one of the most strategic countries for the Chinese government and investors. At present, global giants are looking at Bangladesh with utmost importance and there are some investments deals about to close”.

Shameem Ahsan was invited as a speaker at the 9th Annual INSEAD Asian Private Equity and Venture Capital Conference organized by INSEADin Singapore. INSEAD is one of the world's leading and largest graduate business schools.Other panelists of this seminar included David Gowdey, Managing Partner of Jungle Ventures; James Tan, Managing Partner of Quest Ventures; Yinglan Tan, Managing Partner of Insignia Ventures Partners. The session titled “The entrance of Chinese giants in South and Southeast Asia” was moderated by JenniRisku, Founder of Women in Tech.

INSEADconferences held in both France and Singapore. Now in its thirteenth year, the conference in Fontainebleau has grown to be the largest private equity conference hosted by an academic institution in Europe.The conference provided a forum for discussion on the Asian Private Equity & Venture Capital industry today. The various panels were designed to address emerging markets, LP-GP relationships, real estate, venture capital, impact investing, and many more.

Shameem Ahsan is a General Partner of Fenox Venture Capital, a Silicon Valley based venture capital firm. Fenox currently has 1.5 billion dollar fund under management and works with emerging technology companies worldwide. He is the Chairman of eGeneration Group which has eGeneration Ltd., BAGDOOM.com, and Gemsclip.com as affiliates.

Shameem Ahsan is the immediate past President of Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS) and has played a pivotal role in the implementation of all the major policy changes related to the ICT sector in last one decade. He is a Director of Federation of Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FBBCI) and Chairman of Venture Capital & Private Equity Association of Bangladesh (VCPEAB). He is a Director of Agrani Bank and founder and President of TiE Dhaka.

RM/ 12 November 2017