#29: bKash - How the FinTech payments platform became Bangladesh’s largest tech company

Overview: Today we’re going to talk about bKash - The largest Fintech player in Bangladesh. We start with some background on Bangladesh, discuss bKash’s founding, growth & impact on Bangladesh's economy. We also discuss what other emerging markets can learn from the bKash story & end with our overall outlook. This episode was co-hosted with Shammi Quddus & recorded on May 16, 2021. Companies discussed: bKash, CellBazaar, Money in Motion, Grameenphone, Grameen Bank, BRAC, BRAC Bank, Safaricom (M-Pesa), Nagad, Telenor, Gates Foundation, IFC (World Bank) & Alibaba (Ant Financial) Business concepts discussed: Agency banking, ecosystem partnerships, microfinance expansion, Nonprofit fundraising, impact investing, Telco distribution & serial entrepreneurship Conversation highlights: (00:30) - Why are we talking about bKash and Bangladesh FinTech (04:40) - Bangladesh context and similarities to African countries (14:50) - Fintech context in Bangladesh before bKash in 2011 (16:20) - Founder background - Kamal Quadir background, CellBazaar (22:05) - bKash background - Iqbal Quadir, Grameenphone, etc. (30:48) - bKash founding (47:18) - Fundraising - IFC , BMGF, Ant Financial (59:30) - Product & monetization strategy (1:22:22) - Impact of bKash on the tech sector and economy (1:23:56) - Bankole’s overall thoughts and outlook (1:36:26) - Olumide’s overall thoughts and outlook (1:42:20) - Shammi’s overall thoughts and outlook (1:50:41) - Recommendations and small wins Olumide’s recommendations & small wins: Recommendation: Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life (by Nir Eyal) & Seeking Wisdom: From Darwin to Munger (by Peter Bevelin) Small win: Dinner with friends with a live band. Some chatting, some drinking & some dancing. Marvelous! Bankole’s recommendations & small wins: Recommendation: Prescription Drug Commercials - why they are the way they are by Packy McCormick and Nikhil Krishnan Small win: Spending a week in New York Other content: M-Pesa rate card, FT Partners Shammi’s recommendations & small wins: Recommendation: Fintech podcast 11fs.com/podcast Small win: Got my COVID vaccine! Vaccines for the win! Other content: Bangladesh Bank MFS guidelines, bKash gives a boost to the poor We’d love to hear from you. Please email [email protected] to share feedback or propose topics you’d like to hear. Join our insider mailing list where we get feedback on new episodes & find all episodes at Afrobility.com