The operator of Asia’s largest certified Tier-IV data centre will build two hyperscale data centre buildings at Kaliakair

Yotta Data Services – the data centre and cloud services arm of the Mumbai-based conglomerate Hiranandani Group – has announced plans to invest over Tk2,000 crore to set up a modern data centre facility in Bangladesh. 

The investment will arrive in four to six years, according to the announcement. 

Yotta, the operator of Asia's largest certified Tier-IV data centre, would build its data centre park at the Bangabandhu Hi-Tech City in Kaliakair, Gazipur to house two hyperscale data centre buildings, featuring 4,800 racks and 28.8MW IT power capacity, according to a statement by the company.

My country of origin, Bangladesh, ranks as the 8th most populous country in the world, with a total population of approximately 170 million. Today, it’s widely described as the “next Asian tiger,” boasting a rapidly-growing middle class and one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, in line or greater than India in GDP per capita. This exciting frontier market is also the home to Praava Health — a startup in which I am proud to be an investor, as it is not only disrupting the healthcare industry in Bangladesh, but it also can potentially offer a number of valuable lessons to the healthcare community worldwide.

Bangladesh has advanced 14 spots in the Global Innovation Index (GII) 2022 in a major stride but it still lags behind some of its innovative peers.

The ranking by the United Nations' World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) placed the country at 102nd last year, up from 116th in 2021, among 132 economies.

Although Bangladesh's overall score was 19.7 compared to top-ranked Switzerland's 64.6, its performance was in line with the level of the country's development, according to the report.

The lower ranking, however, highlights Bangladesh's weak education system, lack of human capital and research, and shortfall in business sophistication.

The index uses various indicators to rank innovation. They include measures on the political environment, education, infrastructure and knowledge creation.

Logistics-tech company Paperfly today confirmed another Tk 102 crore investment from the leading Indian tech-based e-commerce logistics solutions provider, Ecom Express.

The Indian company also invested TK 100 crore into Paperfly last year, taking its total investment in local start-up to Tk 202 crore.

Founded in 2016 by Shahriar Hasan, Razibul Islam, Rahath Ahmed, and Shamsuddin Ahmed, Paperfly is the first homegrown tech-enabled logistics company in Bangladesh to offer nationwide coverage, said a press release of Paperfly.

With the investment, the company looks to digitize the courier sector of Bangladesh, according to an official of Paperfly.

Shikho offers academic courses for the Bangladeshi national curriculum secondary school certificate, higher secondary school certificate, and competitive university entrance exams. Its platform provides on-demand video lessons, live classes with tutors, data analytics to track performance and progress, and more.

Nearly 350,000 users across 64 districts of Bangladesh are using Shikho’s mobile platform, which launched in November 2020. Paid subscribers currently spend an average of 68 minutes on the app daily, according to the company.

Shikho was founded in 2019 by Shahir Chowdhury and Zeeshan Zakaria.