DataBird raises $3m foreign funds
DataBird, a Bangladeshi business having products across online travel, media, keyboard, eReader and standard of living mobile applications, recently stated to have raised $3 million in foreign funding to build a messaging app resembling Facebook's messenger, WhatsApp and China's WeChat.
In 2018 it had received a $4 million investment from global internet and software investor Skycatcher in a seed round.
"Prioritising communication, online travel, online advertisement, and repayments, you want to be the web ecosystem builder to serve thousands of people," CEO Kashef Rahman told The Daily Superstar yesterday.
Rahman founded Travelling Booking BD in 2014 and rebranded it due to ShareTrip in 2018.
That year, he and ShareTrip co-founder Sadia Haque founded DataBird with Shamim Hasnath, who in 2012 invented Ridmik Keyboard, which is thought to have 5.5 crore downloads, 2.7 crore monthly users and 1.17 crore daily users.
And collectively they launched Ridmik Labs which is construction the messaging app, to come to be launched in August this year.
This additional investment will expanding ShareTrip's ecosystem with communications, fintech and digital advertising, said Rahman.
He claimed that ShareTrip was the country's most significant online travelling agent with over 50 % market talk about while Ridmik Keyboard was being used by a majority of all smartphone users in the country.
"…everything of DataBird is made in Bangladesh," he added.
Shamim Hasnath, Ridmik founder and chief technology officer of DataBird, said, "I first created Ridmik to create a much better typing encounter for Bangla and English."
Tanveer Ali, a table member of DataBird, said, "…a single of the main objectives for all of us is to get into our team participants to expand their skillsets."
Sadia Haque, chief conversation officer of DataBird, said, "We are inspired by the cultures of Asia's leading tech ecosystem giants like Tencent, Ocean group, and Kakao where they operate with decentralised clubs."
"We…are definitely actively recruiting skill locally or diaspora from overseas who want to arrive to Dhaka and get an impact," she said.
Sia Kamalie, Skycatcher founder, said, "We estimate smartphone penetration is only 40 % today. Within the next few years, we expect another 50 million to 75 million smartphone users should come to the internet for the very first time."
DataBird has an e-book reader program and book store iphone app named Boitoi and a good news app.
