Most effective strategies are boring in nature—talking to customers, being critical about cost, doing weekly WBR, following up with potential customers, writing down the processes, and so on. We feature two fascinating articles on what effective strategies look like in practice in this week’s newsletter—how BeshiDeshi has used a handful of time-tested strategies to build a successful business and complement that with quiet strategies companies like Xiaomi, bKash, and Walton used to build industry-dominant businesses.
In the interview section, we feature a fascinating conversation with BVCL CEO Shawkat Hossain to unpack the state and future of the venture capital ecosystem in Bangladesh, his ambition for BVCL, and his take on what separates great founders and companies.
In the market deep dive, read an in-depth analysis on the state and future of the MFS industry in Bangladesh. Since its inception in 2011, MFS has evolved from facilitating basic money transfers to a wide range of financial transactions—serving more than 200 million registered customers, effectively disrupting Bangladesh’s financial industry.
On the same breath, we take a stab at understanding leading MFS player bKash. bKash is a fascinating company for many reasons. It is Bangladesh’s largest MFS provider, has transformed the country’s financial services landscape, and is the country’s first tech unicorn. However, the most important factors about the company are the ones often overlooked—its extraordinary discipline in avoiding distractions while remaining doggedly focused on its core mission, and its flawless execution prowess. bKash exemplifies quiet execution at its finest.
Find all the links below.
10 Boring Lessons in Building Successful Businesses From BeshiDeshi
When we first covered BeshiDeshi in 2019, it was a fledgling e-commerce platform with 350 artisans and 12,000 products. As it grew, the company saw that quality product images are a challenge for many of these artisans. After trying a few approaches, it introduced a mobile photography training course, teaching artisans to capture professional product images using their phones. Today, almost all of its product photos are taken by mobile phones by the artisans.
A few years into the business, the company realized that artisans have to design and make products that are in demand and match the current design trends to attract customers and gain popularity. Thus it launched a design consultation and course to teach design thinking to artisans so that they can align their crafts with market trends.
In 2020, when COVID-19 pandemic brought the world to a standstill, the company found out that access to finance is a huge challenge for artisans. To address the challenge, it quickly launched a financing program supporting artisans with working capital.
BeshiDeshi has since evolved into a comprehensive ecosystem addressing many of the challenges artisans face in Bangladesh. Today, the company has more than 4,000 craftspeople and over 30,000 products on its platform and has become an important player in Bangladesh’s artisanal economy.
BeshiDeshi’s journey offers excellent lessons on how to navigate complex markets, maintain quality across a distributed production network, achieve operational efficiency, and more importantly, it shows what it means to do things that don’t scale.
Building a venture is a complex problem. Naturally, there are many different ways to do it. But successful companies like BeshiDeshi that have solved for their market provide us with ideas about what works and what does not. In most instances, successful businesses seem to be built on timeless ideas, often considered boring, rather than flashy innovations or trendy quick fixes. BeshiDeshi’s journey reveals several fundamental principles that are frequently overlooked but essential for building sustainable businesses.
We recently featured a fascinating two-part interview with BeshiDeshi founder and CEO Zeeshan Khurshed Mazumder, which is full of such boring but essential lessons across entrepreneurship, venture building, and operations.
BVCL CEO Shawkat Hossain on The Ambition of BVCL, The State of Bangladesh’s Venture Capital Ecosystem, and Useful Founder Traits
In Bangladesh’s fast evolving startup landscape, few organizations have been as consistently present as Bangladesh Venture Capital Limited (BVCL). Since its inception in 2013 as an investment arm of Daffodil Group, BVCL has been an active player in Dhaka’s early-stage investment scene, backing all types of companies.
At the helm of BVCL today is Shawkat Hossain, a former banker turned venture capitalist who brings years of experience navigating Bangladesh’s complex regulatory environment for alternative investments. Under his leadership, BVCL is working to close its first impact fund of 100 crore taka while continuing to make investments from its balance sheet.
In this in-depth conversation, we sit down with Mr. Hossain to unpack the state of Bangladesh’s venture capital ecosystem, the policy hurdles hampering its growth, and why despite having more than 25 organizations with alternative investment licenses, only a handful are actively investing. He shares wisdom gained from his journey as one of the pioneers of the venture capital ecosystem in Bangladesh, talks about BVCL’s thesis and approach to early-stage investing, how the firm scouts and assesses startups to invest and reflects on what separates founders who persevere through challenges from those who don’t.
The State of Mobile Financial Services (MFS) Industry in Bangladesh at the Beginning of 2025
bKash, valued at over $2 billion dollar in its last funding round, is Bangladesh’s first and only tech unicorn. The MFS company posted a profit of Tk 315.77 crore in 2024, a staggering 67% year-on-year increase. By all means, the company is just getting started as the MFS, the industry it operates in, is also just getting started.
The Mobile Financial Services (MFS) industry in Bangladesh has experienced remarkable growth, becoming an indispensable component of the country’s financial ecosystem, expanding the formal financial industry and driving the digital economy.
Since its inception in 2011, MFS has evolved from facilitating basic money transfers to a wide range of financial transactions. It has also seen the ballooning of its user base, exceeding 200 million registered customers. A vast network of agents that partly enable the entire ecosystem has created a unique phenomenon.
Key players like bKash, Nagad, and Rocket dominate the market.
The regulatory framework established by Bangladesh Bank has been instrumental in guiding this growth. While the existing regulatory regime has played an important role in ensuring consumer protection and compliance, it has also stifled innovation and competition in some instances.
Technological advancements, particularly the increasing use of smartphones and mobile applications, alongside the continued relevance of USSD-based services, have played a significant role in shaping the industry’s trajectory.
Despite its successes, the MFS industry in Bangladesh faces challenges such as agent network management, security concerns, customer education, and the need for greater interoperability.
While several major providers compete for market share, many industry insiders want to suggest that there is a lack of meaningful competition in the industry.
Looking ahead, the future of MFS in Bangladesh is promising. The market has room for further growth, MFS players are continuously expanding their service offerings, and new trends like digital banking will likely create new opportunities.
In this report, we take a stab at offering a comprehensive overview of the current state of the MFS industry in Bangladesh, its historical development, key players, regulatory framework, market dynamics, technological infrastructure, challenges, competitive landscape, and future outlook.
A Brief History of bKash: Trajectory, Funding, and Lessons
bKash is a fascinating company for many reasons beyond the obvious. Yes, it is Bangladesh’s largest MFS provider, has transformed the country’s financial services landscape, and become its first tech unicorn. As we have noted in these pages before, these well-known factors obscure what truly makes bKash such a formidable player in Bangladesh’s financial services sector.
The most important factors about the company are the ones often overlooked—its extraordinary discipline in avoiding distractions while remaining doggedly focused on its core mission, and its flawless execution prowess. bKash exemplifies quiet execution at its finest.
Founded in 2010 and launched in 2011, bKash has emerged as Bangladesh’s dominant mobile financial service (MFS) provider while many competitors have come and gone. Many of these rivals launched with much hype about building “super apps” and all that.
bKash, while has a realistic potential to become a superapp in Bangladesh, never toyed with these distractions. Instead, it concentrated on the task at hand, methodically building its core services. And this dogged focus has delivered a resounding win for the company.
Born from an ambition to bring financial services to the unbanked majority, bKash patiently scaled through strategic partnerships, an extensive agent network, consistent service diversification, and user-first technology and innovations. It has maintained a measured approach to technology development, developing solutions that meet actual user needs rather than chasing trends.
The company has been equally modest about its fundraising achievements. Without fanfare, bKash became Bangladesh’s first unicorn, exceeding a $1 billion valuation with investments from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, International Finance Corporation, Ant Financial, and SoftBank Vision Fund.
While bKash’s success stems partly from first-mover advantage and strong brand building efforts, its timing and focused execution have proven most crucial. Launched when mobile phone penetration reached critical mass in Bangladesh, the company executed its mission with precision, quietly leveraging partnerships while pursuing continuous innovation.
Currently the leader in its vertical, bKash continues expanding its services in Bangladesh’s digital financial ecosystem. Mobile financial services have gained significant traction in Bangladesh, transforming the way people conduct financial transactions. bKash has been a pioneer in this transformation.
When many fintech companies these days often seem more concerned with disruption than sustainability, bKash offers a compelling counter-narrative of steady growth, strategic patience, and relentless focus on execution.
In this analysis, we examine bKash’s journey from its origins to its current market dominance, tracing its growth trajectory, funding history, and key factors that have shaped its remarkable ascent, while also examining the challenges it has encountered and the lessons its journey may offer for the rest of us who are trying to build enduring enterprises.
Quiet Strategies That Helped Companies like Xiaomi, bKash, and Walton Win Their Markets
Common sense is often the first casualty in the pursuit of business success. Entrepreneurs chase shiny trends, over-engineered solutions, or fixate on vanity metrics, only to wonder why their ventures fail.
The stories of successful companies often show that the most enduring companies stick to fundamental principles.
Here are 10 strategies, gained from years of experience covering businesses, to ground your business in reality and set it up for long-term success.