Robi’s innovative digital
entrepreneurship platform, r-ventures, enters incubation stage
Dhaka, 8 July 2018: A total of seven Robi employees have
started their journey of becoming an entrepreneur with financial, management
advisory as well as motivational support and encouragement from Robi.
The journey has started in the form of incubating the
employees’ business ideas under the company’s innovative digital entrepreneurship
development platform, r-ventures. The incubation period will continue for the
next twelve months during which Robi will be funding up to one crore taka for
each of the six shortlisted business ideas.
The seven Robi employees who will be taking part in the
incubation stage of the r-ventures programme along with their business ideas
were introduced to the people at an event held at a city hotel today.
Hon’ble Minister, Ministry of Posts, Telecommunications and
Information Technology, Mustafa Jabbar adorned the event as the chief guest. Bangladesh
Association of Software & Information Services’s President, Syed Almas
Kabir and Microsoft Bangladesh’s Managing Director, Sonia Bashir Kabir were
present on the occasion as the special guests.
The programme started with the welcome speech by Robi’s Head
of Human Resources Division, Md. Faisal Imtiaz Khan. Robi’s Managing Director
and CEO, Mahtab Uddin Ahmed along with the company’s Management Council members
were present at the event as well. Robi’s Vice President, Resourcing, Md. Zaved
Parvez hosted the programme.
Employees who will successfully complete the incubation
stage will go on to form their own companies, paving the way for them to be the
CEOs of their own digital ventures. The unique feature of allowing employees to
pursue entrepreneurship, makes “r-ventures” one of kind in the country’s
digital start-up landscape. It also demonstrates Robi’s unwavering commitment
to emerge as the digital champion of the industry in the future.
Robi’s Manager, Digital Service, Mohammad Abdul Hadi Bhuiyan,
Vice President, Information Technology, Md. Ashik Noon, General Manager,
Enterprise Program Management Office, Muhammad Mohsiul Haque, General Manager,
Market Operations, Shakil Farhan Mithun, Manager, Market Operation, Md Hasibul
Karim, Specialist, Market Operations, Reyasat Chowdhury and General Manager,
Network Assurance, Mohammad Mostafizur Rahman are the seven Robi officials who
will now try their business ideas over the next one year under the r-ventures
incubation stage.
During this twelve months incubation period, they will
continue to draw their salary and other benefits just like they were doing as regular
employees without having any job responsibility towards Robi’s business. Instead,
they will have full freedom to try out their business ideas in the real life
context with funding of up to one crore taka for each idea from Robi.
Funding for the business ideas will be released based on the
progress made by the seven Robi employees taking part in the incubation stage.
The Robi employees who successfully complete the incubation stage will get to
form their own companies. Robi will take a stake in those companies. Going
forward, r-ventures will be open to accept funding from private as well as the
public sector depending on suitability for each business idea.
Hon’ble Minister, Ministry of Posts, Telecommunications and
Information Technology, Mustafa Jabbar said, “I have never seen any
organization trying to help their employees to become entrepreneurs. I wish I
had a company like Robi supporting me when I was trying to become an
entrepreneur. There are many people working on digital start-ups these days,
but, I have found many of them not knowing the basics of business: such as,
business plan, cash-flow, etc. It’s great to see the r-venturists are fully
aware of these basics. I wish the r-venturists all the best. Ministry of Posts,
Telecommunications and Information Technology will always be with Robi on this
noble journey.”
Speaking on the occasion, Robi’s Managing Director and CEO,
Mahtab Uddin Ahmed said: “The ongoing digitalization of society is creating
numerous business opportunities for digital solutions. Being a structured
company, Robi is unlikely to be able to capitalize on these opportunities as
this emerging business landscape demands lean start-ups who are able to adapt
to consumer demands at an agile pace. Hence, we thought of creating the
r-ventures platform to create digital entrepreneurs who can do it better than
us. We felt that we should try the concept with our employees first since they
are already aware of the demands that such businesses command. We have worked
extensively with the seven officials to make their business ideas market ready
and are committed to invest up to one crore taka for each of business idea. We
are confident that this initiative will help us to bring about transformative
changes inside Robi with regards to embracing a Modern, Agile and Digital work-culture.
We intend to allow all the aspiring youth of the country to access this unique
platform, r-ventures, soon.”
A
total of 212 business ideas were initially submitted by the Robi employees.
Following multiple rounds of selection 50 business ideas were chosen for the
second phase; from 50 to 15 in semi-final round. Finally, six business ideas
were selected to be put through the incubation stage.
ABOUT ROBI
Robi Axiata Limited (“Robi”) is a subsidiary company of the
Asian telecom giant, Axiata Group Berhad based in Malaysia. Robi is the second
largest mobile network operator in Bangladesh. Robi has introduced many first
of its kind digital services in the country and has invested heavily to take
its mobile network to the underserved communities even in the rural areas.
Other shareholders in the entity are Bharti Airtel International (Singapore)
Pte Ltd and NTT DOCOMO Inc.