PUJEE: AN INITIATIVE OF LIGHTCASTLE PARTNERS
Bonnishikha Chowdhury, MBR Team
How did the idea of Pujee come into being?
Bijon Islam: At LightCastle Partners (LCP) we believe in the Bangladesh Growth Story We believe by working with the private sector (making businesses more efficient, better managed, increased inclusivity/impact focus) and creating a favorable investment climate we can help boost the economy which will change the lives of the people here at scale. Hence our tagline that has stood true for the last 7 years - Inspiring Business. Boosting Economy. Changing Lives. We do this by creating data-driven opportunities for growth and lasting impact for Development Partners, Corporates, Startup and SMEs. Our service suites include Strategy Consulting, Entrepreneurship Ecosystem & Investments and Digital Transformation solutions. Till date, the company has consulted for 120+ corporations & development partners, collaborated with 400+ SMEs & startups, mobilized U$ 25 million+ in investments and supported 25+ accelerator programs across Bangladesh. LCP also hosts the largest market and industry datasets in Bangladesh. Under Strategy Consulting - we provide research and consulting services to multilateral/bi-lateral development partners, corporate foundations, INGOs;some of the world’s largest companies operating/ or planning to enter Bangladesh and top-tier local business conglomerates. Within the Entrepreneurship Ecosystem & Investments wing LightCastle manages one of the largest accelerator/incubator networks in the country both in the public and private sector and often working with the government as well as creating an enabling investment environment. Lastly with Digital Transformation solutions we help select clientele and the ecosystem have credible access to decision making data - which goes back to our goal of democratizing data in Bangladesh for Bangladesh. While working with SMEs and Startups – we always saw building financial models especially for capital raising is always a challenge – hence we decided can we make an easy to use web-ware and excel templates that Startups and SMEs can easily use to construct their financial model just by answering 15 to 20 questions complete with cash-flow, PnL projections, capital budgeting ratios like IRR, NPV and DCF based valuation – and hence the concept of Pujee was born
What is the business model of Pujee?
Bijon Islam: Pujee is an open IP platform with a web ware and open financial templates for everyone – used by not only Startups/SMEs that are in accelerator programs we are supporting or LightCastle team members are supporting as mentors but anyone in the ecosystem. This helps establish a) Thought leadership in investment advisory which helps build consulting/ advisory business pipeline; b) Develop a pipeline for catalytic funding and investment programs that we run for our clients. Till date we have more than 3000+ entrepreneurs who have used our web ware and templates to create financial models to create forecasts for capital raising.
How the response was in the initial stage and what strategies have you developed to expand the client base?
Bijon Islam: Entrepreneurs have actively used the Pujee/LightCastle template and web-wares since the beginning and we have also received the prestigious BRAC Manthan Award for this. Over time we have evolved to include accelerator/incubator programs to give more value added services, investment advisory for Series A and later stage Startups and more recently we have gone into fund management and providing due-diligence service to investors including a reputed Europe based fund and leading local/international VCs. We are also launching an investment fund under LightCastle as well as investing in an alternative investment company.
How many clients have Pujee served so far? How do you hope to scale up the business?
Bijon Islam: As I said the platform and its templates have served 3000+ investors. We have built multiple accelerator/incubator programs where we are internally using the system to generate financial models for our cohort members. Under our accelerator/incubator management services we have worked with USAID. UKAID, UNWOMEN, UNCDF, EMK Center (funded by US State Department), SDC, EKN, Oxfam, GEN (Global Entrepreneurship Network), Frontier Innovators and Incubators (funded by DFAT), GPA, Banglalink Incubator (funded by VEON), World Bank Group, World Food Programme, Syngenta Foundation, ITC (International Trade Center). Additionally, we are now going into building our duediligence and advisory stack along with investment and fund management and hope to continue contributing to the growth of the ecosystem. The main reason for going into advisory, accelerator program and funding is that, just doing the financial model is not enough – most entrepreneurs need deeper engagement and needs smart money to take them to the next level.
What challenges does Pujee face in general?
Bijon Islam: Running any business is challenging in Bangladesh – compared to India’s 63 or Vietnam’s 70 – we are ranked 168 in Doing Business Index. Common challenges include high accounts receivables during early days, inability of the product to be used without an advisory stack and not being able to provide meaningful linkage to funding. That is why we had to evolved to providing advisory at scale via our accelerator program and move into fund management and ultimately moving into Startup/SME investments ourselves.
Considering the Covid -19 situation, what are the difficulties have you been facing and how do you intend to recover or mitigate those?
Bijon Islam: Advisory and consulting is an interesting business – we have actually seen a lot of our products in demand even during COVID. People still need to develop business forecasts, still need to raise capital and develop business sustainability strategies. While there was an impact on cash-flow, deals getting stretched over longer periods, productivity and team dynamics coming to optimum with a Work-from-Home model – I think LightCastle has fared well during the pandemic and have been able to create meaningful value for enterprises in the ecosystem especially via creating a lot of open Data reports on COVID impact; meaningful work in branding Bangladesh (with a partnership with one of the leading Europe based consulting firm – Larive International and mobilizing funds for Startups/ SMEs through programs like Biniyog Briddhi . Our Pujee concept hence has come a long way from where it started.
What are your future plans for Pujee?
Bijon Islam: Our plan remains same Inspiring Businesses (making them more inclusive, better managed and with proper governance). We as a country will move towards an advanced economy which will in turn will change the lives of people in the country. Our goal with our initiatives is to play a significant role in the transition process. Bangladesh will continue to grow and we want to be part of that growth story.
Feed Industry of Bangladesh: Sustaining Covid-19 and Potentials in Upcoming Days
Feed Industry of the country: Surviving the Outbreak of COVID-19
The agricultural industry of Bangladesh remains of pivotal importance, contributing 13.35% to the GDP of the country. Out of this, 4.95% is contributed by poultries and fisheries, which would not have been possible without proper nutrition provided by the feed mills. This establishes the far-reaching importance that feed mills hold in ensuring quality output from the agricultural sector. Globally, the feed industry generates about US $400 billion from compound annual feed production of 1 billion tonnes. Over 130 countries are involved in the production process or sale of feed which generates employment opportunities for many.
In an obvious attempt to contain the virus, governments all over the world, introduced lockdowns, limitations on travel and business opening hours. All of these has had an unnerving impact on the feed industry alongside many others. Lockdowns and logistical blockages have created movement restrictions, halting business activity. And no just that, even rumors concerning the spread of coronavirus through poultry and other meat consumption has had a significant impact on the industry’s turnover. Supply chain disruptions leading to a loss in dairy and meat products have affected the feed market as well. Disruptions in the supply chain created wastage despite high demand in the markets, and trade halts have stopped raw materials from coming into the country which had severely impacted the feed mills industry and its stakeholders.
However, lockdowns have given a lot of people time to reflect on many decisions and directed them towards taking healthier steps, for instance. The increased consumption of meat, alongside growing awareness about livestock nutrition has led to an expansion of the market size of feed and feed additives globally. In Bangladesh, commercial feed production experienced a near 25% growth over the last decade. A number of feed mills were established to meet the upsurge in feed demand and the local market expanded subsequently, with poultry feed holding the most market share, followed by fish feed and then cattle feed.
With the world slowly stabilizing after the impact of the pandemic, the only hope is to look ahead into the future towards a prosperous local and global feed industry, and a safer and healthier world.
Sushmita Saha
Assistant Manager
IDLC Finance Ltd.