Tv24 Desk: The 9 individuals got listed for their work in three sectors — enterprise technology, social impact, and retail and e-commerce. A total of nine Bangladeshis have made it to the Forbes 30 under 30 Asia list for the first time.
The prestigious business magazine Forbes released its sixth annual “30 Under 30 Asia” list on Monday. From 2016 to 2020, a total of nine Bangladeshis made the list. But this year alone, nine Bangladeshis made the list for their work in three sectors – enterprise technology, social impact, and retail and e-commerce.
With 30 chosen for each of the 10 categories, the list includes young entrepreneurs, leaders, and trailblazers from across Asia, all under the age of 30, who are overcoming the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic and finding new opportunities in the new normal.
The Bangladeshis who made this year’s list are:
Gaze co-founders Shehzad Noor Taus Priyo and Motasim Bir Rahman
Shehzad Noor Taus, 24 and Motasim Bir Rahman’s, 24, Gaze, a Singapore and Bangladesh-based AI startup, offers visual recognition technologies for online transactions.
Launched in 2018, Gaze builds frictionless online checkout. 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.
Gaze offers an API for visual recognition technologies like spoof-proof face recognition, product recognition, multilingual optical character recognition (OCR) and more.
API is a software intermediary that allows two applications to talk to each other. Applications like Facebook, sending an instant message, or checking the weather on a phone all use APIs.
Its mission is to embed Artificial Intelligence (AI) into everyday life by enabling others to easily build software powered by visual recognition AI.
Taus Noor 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.
Hearing the announcement, Shehzad Noor 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.
Long way ahead, here’s to building the future together!”
Motasim Bir Rahman started his career by building a local social networking platform in Bangladesh called Nogor Balok at the age of 14. Followed by an e-commerce venture named Geekk, an online apparel brand. Then him and his friends built an anonymous social networking platform called Incogmito. In 2015, Motasim moved to Malaysia to study Computer Science at Multimedia University.
Motasim Bin Rahman in a Facebook post said: “We’re extremely grateful to be named one of the Forbes 30 Under 30 honourees this year. Special thanks to Morshed Mishu, Hussain M Elius for nominating us. Mohammad Maaz, Rahat Ahmed, Dan McMurtrie, Jayesh Parmar and the entire Gaze team— this wouldn’t be possible without you guys.”
Cramstack founder Mir Sakib
Mir Sakib, 28, was honored for Cramstack, a startup that uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to automate the extraction of information from unstructured data to provide insights for businesses.
This is how Cramstack works. They are 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.
Its predictive modelling uses data mining and probability to forecast outcomes with assistance from AI. The goal of the company is to reduce the bureaucracy around business data, and make data access simple and quick.
The platform allows the extracted data from the search to be compiled into reports and graphs and presented on a dashboard that is a customizable interface and has the ability to pull real-time data from multiple sources.
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.
Mir has been working on data science and engineering for more than 5 years. he has a background in computer science with experience working in power, manufacturing, FI’s and public health. His research and development in NLP and Big Data mining is what helped him to lead Cramstack, according to his Linkedin profile.
He graduated from North South University in Computer Science and has a masters in Applied Mathematics and Informatics from the Higher School of Economics, Russia.
Awareness 360 co-founders Shomy Chowdhury and Rijve 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.
They aim to empower young people with tools, resources and mentorship in contributing to the realisation of the 2030 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals’ (UN SDGs) Agenda.
Awareness 360 is currently being run in 23 countries worldwide.
Shomy Chowdhury, co-founder of Awareness 360, wrote: “Thank you John! Really honored to join the Forbes community!”
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!”
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 received the President’s Volunteer Service Award (Gold) in 2012 from President Barack Obama and was the the first and only Bangladeshi to have been awarded with the 2019 Princess Diana Legacy Award. She graduated from Economics from University Putra Malaysia.
Rijve 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 Committee member of the Commonwealth Students’ Association, deputy director of 2019 HP Kuala Lumpur Regional Finals at Hult Prize Foundation, former Country Director of Global Entrepreneurship Bootcamp, a Their World Global Youth ambassador and fellow at UNDP Youth Co:Lab.
Obhizatrik Foundation Founder Ahmed Imtiaz Jami
Ahmed Imtiaz Jami, 27, founded the 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 3500 volunteers.
Obhizatrik Foundation’s Ahmed Imtiaz Jami told Dhaka Tribune: “I’m thankful to everyone for their love and support on the occasion of Forbes list. My family and close friends supported me a lot. For a long period, we were waiting for international recognition. This achievement will encourage us for better tomorrow.”
He graduated in Computer Science from Ahsanullah University. He is also a global shaper at the World Economic Forum.
Hydroquo+ co-founder Rizvana Hredita and Md Zahin Rohan 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 was founded in 2018. They consult government agencies and NGOs on water-quality modeling.
Md Zahin Rohan Razeen, cofounder of Hydroquo+ said: “This is really inspiring to me for my work. For being featured in Forbes 30 under 30, I want to thank my mother and family for their enormous support. Being a UN youth leader pushed my motivation. I’m feeling empowered to do more”
“Only thing I want to say to everyone is that if I can do it, you can do it too,” he added.
Pickaboo co-founder Morin 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.
Morin Talukdar, co-founder and CEO at Pickaboo wrote on LinkedIn: “Honoured to be included on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list this year. This was only possible because of the team at Pickaboo.com – the best team in Bangladesh and the support of our customers.” Source: DhakaTribune