The Bangladesh Women Investors’ Network (BWIN), started as a sister chapter of Bangladesh Angels Network (BAN), is the pioneering network of women business angels in the country.
Why We Exist
- In 2020, globally only 9% of all funds deployed to technology startups went to founding teams that included at least one woman. Solo woman founders and all-women teams raised just 2% of all VC dollars, according to Tech Crunch.
- Venture capital targeting women-owned businesses is virtually nonexistent in South Asia, including Bangladesh, according to a 2018 report by the Asian Development Bank and the Asia Foundation.
- There is a business case for supporting and investing in more women-led startups; research shows that investment in women-founded startups performs 63% better than exclusively male-founded startups.
- Bangladesh bottom-ranked among 58 economies in the MasterCard Index of Women Entrepreneurs (MIWE) 2020, meaning it is one of the toughest places for women entrepreneurs
The Bottom Line
There is a business case to having more women founders and women investors within an ecosystem and applying a gender-lens approach to investment decisions. When women become business angels they invest in sectors that have often been overlooked by male business angels, and they tend to invest in women-led ventures. The result? A more diverse equity investor pool that helps to ensure great ideas get the funding they deserve.
Our Approach
With an aim to fill the early-stage financing gap and provide advisory support to women-led and women-focused startups, the network engages in multiple activities towards this end. Our members include a blend of individual investors, family offices, corporate and global investors. The network looks to invest in deals between the range of $50,000 to $250,000 across all sectors. In addition to funding, the network will also provide high-quality mentoring and access to networks and strategic support to its portfolio and pipeline companies.
Investors
Invest in some of the most promising enterprises in Bangladesh and get in at the ground floor of their growth
- Access to highly curated deal-flow across sector
- Invest alongside industry leaders
- Post investment portfolio monitoring support
- Curated curriculum to master the black box of startup investing and other asset classes
Entrepreneurs
We help women-led and women-focused startups & rising enterprises accelerate their growth with our decades of experience
- Customized pre-investment support before you pitch to investors
- Connect to local & global investors
- Mentorship and market development