Accelerating Asia Ventures has announced its 12th cohort, featuring eight startups—four of which come from Bangladesh, representing one of the strongest country representations in the batch. Selected from a pool of over 700 applicants with an acceptance rate of just over 1%, the selected startups are already generating an average of US$37K in monthly revenue.

With the addition of Cohort 12, the Accelerating Asia Ventures portfolio now comprises 100 startups, collectively valued at over US$1.1Bn, with over US$152Mn in follow-on funding. The program continues to prioritize gender-lens investing, and three female-founded startups have joined this year’s cohort.

“We saw a major theme of AI in the applications, but we filter for substance,” said Amra Naidoo, General Partner at Accelerating Asia Ventures. “The founders in Cohort 12 exemplify this. They are not building AI for its own sake; they are using it as a practical tool to solve real-world problems in their emerging markets.”

The Bangladeshi Startups in Cohort 12 include:

• Chamak: A B2B trade finance platform making trade payments easier
  
  
• biniyog.io: A Shariah-compliant SME financing marketplace
  
  
• InsureCow: A digital livestock insurance platform creating a new asset class for rural financing
  
  
• Wellspring Global: Providing healthier food and beverages for the emerging market middle class
  
  

These four companies reflect Bangladesh’s evolving startup ecosystem, spanning finance, agritech, and consumer products, each addressing gaps in access, efficiency, or affordability. The cohort also includes startups from Singapore, Indonesia, and India.

“For our investors, these numbers prove the effectiveness of our system,” said Craig Bristol Dixon, Co-founder and General Partner of Accelerating Asia Ventures. “We provide the qualified, vetted deal flow they cannot access alone and de-risk the opportunity by managing diligence and portfolio support.”

Accelerating Asia Ventures continues to expand its network of investors to back early-stage founders across the region, including Bangladesh’s emerging startups.