Hon'ble Adviser to The Prime Minister of ICT Affairs Mr. Sajeeb Wazed inaugurated the government’s first accelerator for Startups on Thursday, July 26, 2018 at ICT Tower, Agargaon, Dhaka. Aiming to support 1000 startups by 2021 Hon'ble Adviser inaugurated this excellent initiative. It has been established to play a prominent role in building a sustainable startup ecosystem in Bangladesh. The accelerator will be operated by Innovation Design and Entrepreneur Academy (iDEA) project executed by the Bangladesh Computer Council under the Information and Communication Technology Division.

Startup accelerator is fixed-term, cohort-based program that includes seed investment, mentorship, networking, workshop, seminar, training to accelerate growth. Most startup accelerators in Silicon Valley and globally are privately funded as an investment fund that take equity and focus on a wide range of industries. Moreover, the startup accelerator will work toward the efforts of the government to develop startup ecosystem and help create employment opportunities for the youth of Bangladesh.

Hon'ble Minister for Post, Telecommunications and Information Technology Mr. Mustafa Jabbar, Hon'ble State Minister for Information and Communications Technology Division Mr. Zunaid Ahmed Palak MP, The Secretary ICT Division Juena Aziz, The Executive Director of Bangladesh Computer Council (BCC) Mr. Partho Pratim Dev, senior officials of the ICT Division and IT experts were present at the program.