Nine Bangladeshis have made the 2021 'Forbes 30 under 30' Asia list for the first time, according to the prestigious global magazine.
They got listed, with 300 young entrepreneurs and trailblazers who are leading the charge in the new normal, for their work in enterprise technology, social impact, and retail and e-commerce sectors.
The Bangladeshi trailblazers are Shehzad Noor Taus Priyo, Motasim Bir Rahman, Mir Sakib, Shomy Chowdhury, Rijve Arefin, Ahmed Imtiaz Jami, Rizvana Hredita, Md Zahin Rohan Razeen and Morin Talukder.
Announcing the list on Tuesday in the Forbes Asia April/May 2021 issue, Forbes said it featured bright and innovative young leaders who have persevered and thrived amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
Gaze Co-founders Priyo and Rahman
Shehzad Noor Taus Priyo (24) and Motasim Bir Rahman's (24) Gaze, a Singapore and Bangladesh-based AI (artificial intelligence) startup, offers visual recognition technologies for online transactions.
According to Gaze Facebook page, they build Gazepass-a passwordless sign in API for developers that is compatible with any device with a webcam or biometric sensor.
Launched in 2018, Gaze builds frictionless online checkout and offers an API for visual recognition technologies like spoof-proof face recognition, product recognition and multilingual optical character recognition.
Mr Priyo is a former deep learning software engineer at NVIDIA, machine learning developer at IBM, Full Stack Developer at Picatic and developer intern at Microsoft.
He graduated from the University of British Columbia, Canada.
Mr Priyo on Facebook said: "This was only possible because of the remarkable team that they have the pleasure and honour of working with at Gaze - this is entirely them."
On the other hand, Mr Rahman started his career by building a local social networking platform in Bangladesh called Nogor Balok at the age of 14.
Cramstack Founder Sakib
Mir Sakib (28) was honoured for Cramstack, a startup that uses AI to automate the extraction of information from unstructured data to provide insights for businesses.
Cramstack is a data mining and data analytics startup that provides a platform to look up valuable data and organize it in the way the user desires, according to their statement on Facebook.
The idea behind Cramstack is to build a search platform that would allow users to search enterprise data sources as easily as a Google search.
Awareness 360 Co-founders Shomy and Arefin
Shomy Chowdhury (26) and Rijve Arefin (26) co-founded Awareness 360, a Kuala Lumpur-based NGO with 1,500 volunteers in 23 countries and a 150,000-strong campaign on personal hygiene basics like handwashing, water filtration and sanitation.
A post by Awareness 360 social media post reads: "We are thankful to all our teammates, country ambassadors, core members, volunteers, partners, and well-wishers for supporting our journey. This recognition will motivate our entire team to continue our mission of generating more impact across the world!"
Ms Shomy is an award-winning water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) activist, a Schwarzman Scholar, a US State Department alumna, a Global Citizen Youth advocate, a Global Changemakers fellow, a Royal Commonwealth Society fellow a TEDx Speaker, and an International Election Observer.
She graduated in economics from University Putra Malaysia.
Mr Arefin too graduated in economics from University Putra Malaysia. He is also Royal Commonwealth Society fellow, the director and curator of multiple TEDx events, the Asia Regional.
Obhizatrik Foundation Founder Jami
Ahmed Imtiaz Jami (27) founded Obhizatrik Foundation to help underprivileged children. So far, his foundation has assisted one million people in poverty alleviation, education, health and nutrition, human rights and other areas with the aid of 3,500 volunteers.
He graduated in computer science from Ahsanullah University. He is also a global shaper at the World Economic Forum.
Hydroquo+ Co-Founders Hredita and Razeen
Hydroquo+, founded by Rizvana Hredita (28) and Md Zahin Rohan Razeen (22), provides AI-powered water management solutions that report on water quality, detect leakage, and forecast demand based on consumption.
The Dhaka-based startup, founded in 2018, consults government agencies and NGOs on water-quality modeling.
Pickaboo Co-founder Talukder
Morin Talukder (27) co-founded e-commerce company Pickaboo, a well-known site in Bangladesh for offering high-quality products and fast delivery. It was one of the first companies to include EMI and same-day delivery.
How they made the list
The Forbes list undergoes a rigorous process to put together. Starting with more than 2,500 online nominations, the Forbes team of researchers and fact-checkers select an initial shortlist of 500 semifinalists, who then get vetted by a lineup of A-list judges and industry experts.
The final 300 get selected afterwards taking into consideration criteria such as demonstration of leadership, impact, potential of success and the embodiment of the entrepreneurial spirit synonymous with Forbes. Other factors like innovation, disruption-as well as size and growth of their ventures in some categories-play a role in making the final decision.
This year's judges included accomplished and acclaimed entrepreneurs and business leaders like Mickey Mikitani, CEO of Rakuten; Roshni Nadar Malhotra, Executive Director & CEO of HCL Corporation and Trustee of Shiv Nadar Foundation; JP Gan, Founding Partner at INCE Capital; Kaifu Lee, CEO of Sinovation Ventures; Kishin RK, Founder and CEO of RB Capital Group; Jixun Foo, Managing Partner at GGV Capital; Nisa Leung, Managing Partner at Qiming Venture Partners; Kuok Meng Ru, CEO of BandLab Technologies; Nicole Warne, Founder of GaryPepperGirl; Jennifer Wai-Fun Liu, Founder and Chairwoman of The Coffee Academics; Anna Fang, CEO of ZhenFund and Patrick Grove, Cofounder and Group CEO of Catcha Group.
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