DIGIBOX and Govaly have joined Accelerating Asia Ventures' 13th cohort — two of five startups selected from a record 724 applications across 20 countries, at an acceptance rate of under one percent, the most selective intake in the firm's eight-year history. Both were already generating revenue before selection.

DIGIBOX is building shared last-mile delivery infrastructure in Bangladesh: a network of IoT-enabled lockers that any platform, bank, or retailer can connect to. "Rather than competing in operations with other market players, we focused on creating the underlying layer — one that can be beneficial for all, for 3PL and e-commerce operators alike," said Rezwanul Haque Jami, founder and CEO.

Jami has done this before. He previously built and exited BDTickets.com, one of Bangladesh's first online ticketing platforms, and OLX.com.bd. His 31-person team designs and manufactures its own locker hardware, owns the full software stack, and has patents pending on a scalable off-grid design. DIGIBOX currently operates 55 locker sites, has processed close to a million deliveries, and serves 123,000 end users. Approximately one percent of all Daraz orders in Bangladesh now flows through its network, alongside clients including BRAC Bank and Rokomari.

Last-mile logistics in Bangladesh is a red ocean — operators fighting on cost in a market where parcel failure rates run as high as 20%, according to Rezwanul Haque Jami. DIGIBOX's model changes the underlying economics: instead of multiple riders travelling to multiple adjacent addresses, one rider drops 100 parcels in a single location to reach 100 people. Jami says that often translates to a 50% reduction in last-mile delivery cost and a reduction in failed deliveries of up to 90%.

For Jami, the Accelerating Asia programme is less about capital and more about market access. "If DIGIBOX is successful in Bangladesh, the system can be scaled to SEA and MENA, which lack similar deployments. Accelerating Asia can play a pivotal role there," he said.

Govaly is a fashion and beauty e-commerce marketplace that works exclusively with sellers it vets through a three-step verification process. The vertical focus is intentional: counterfeits and unverified sellers are a persistent drag on Bangladesh's broader e-commerce market, and horizontal platforms have limited incentive to solve it. Govaly's answer is to not sell everything to everyone.

"Fashion and beauty is already one of the largest e-commerce categories in Bangladesh, representing a 4 billion-dollar market opportunity, yet there has been no dominant category-focused platform built around solving the unique needs of fashion and beauty shoppers. That gap is what attracted us," said Himel Faraz, co-founder of Govaly.

The approach draws on global precedent, says Faraz, pointing to platforms like Myntra and Nykaa in India that built dominant category positions by going deep on fashion and beauty rather than competing horizontally. "That is why Govaly chose to go vertical building the best destination for fashion and beauty commerce in Bangladesh rather than becoming another general marketplace," he added.

In its first year, the platform has grown to over 100,000 users, 70,000 orders, and more than 1,000 verified sellers. Its average order value of US$22 is roughly three times the local industry norm. Its order cancellation rate of 11% compares to a sector average of close to 30%, and it claims to deliver roughly 80% faster than the market by shipping directly from verified sellers rather than holding stock.

"Being selected from 724 applications with an acceptance rate of under 1% is a strong validation of both the problem we are solving and the opportunity that exists in Bangladesh's fashion and beauty commerce sector. For us, this is not the destination — it is a signal that our vision resonates beyond our local market. Accelerating Asia's selection process is highly competitive, so being chosen reinforces our belief that Govaly is building something with the potential to scale regionally," Faraz said.

"We are genuinely excited to welcome these five to the Accelerating Asia family," said Craig Bristol Dixon, Co-founder and General Partner of Accelerating Asia Ventures. Dixon has previously described the firm's edge as being the first institutional cheque into markets where serious capital remains thin at the seed stage — a dynamic that has made Bangladesh one of its most consistent feeder markets. The country has now placed startups in each of Accelerating Asia's last four cohorts.