Bangladeshi employment platform gets $1m boost from Cocoon Capital

Shomvob co-founders (from left) Naqib Muhammad Faiyaz, Hasibur Rahman, and Rifad Hossain / Photo credit: Shomvob

According to B2B employment platform Shomvob, hiring continues to be a problem for over 650,000 firms and SMEs in Bangladesh.

These firms struggle mainly because of outmoded paper-centric systems and disorganized data, causing productivity to drop by 30%. Meanwhile, Shomvob also found that around 70 million people in the country struggle to find jobs that meet their expectations.

To address this, the company launched an app-based platform that matches job seekers with relevant opportunities. It is also equipped with an application tracking system, which offers real-time updates on job application progress.

Now Shomvob has landed US$1 million in a pre-seed funding round led by Singaporean venture capital firm Cocoon Capital. The Bangladeshi startup also announced that it received a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to help low-income women in the country find job opportunities.

The company was co-founded in 2022 by Naqib Muhammad Faiyaz, Hasibur Rahman, and Rifad Hossain. To date, Shomvob has 600,000 job seekers and over 1,300 companies registered on its platform. According to the firm, there have been around 12,000 successful placements in areas like healthcare, retail, and logistics.

Shomvob has also teamed up with the Passport to Earning skills training project – part of UNICEF’s partnership called Generation Unlimited. Primarily targeting disadvantaged groups, the initiative is aimed at boosting their employability.

The new funding will support the development of Shomvob’s human resource information system, which aims to streamline the processes from recruitment to payroll management.

Shomvob plans to incorporate financial services and expand into the global mobility market, while Cocoon Capital’s investment director Zong Xi Sia recently joined its board of directors.

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