Kamal Quadir

Kamal Quadir

Quadir in 2008
Occupation

CEO of bKash Limited[1]

Founder of CellBazaar Inc.[2]
bKash Limited
Industry Financial Services
Website www.bkash.com
CellBazaar Inc.
Industry Mobile Telecommunication
Slogan Market in Your Pocket
Website www.cellbazaar.com

Kamal S. Quadir is a Bangladeshi American entrepreneur and artist best known for introducing e-commerce in Bangladesh by founding CellBazaar,[3] an electronic marketplace which, after reaching 4 million users, was acquired by Norwegian telecommunications operator Telenor in 2010. CellBazaar later got rebranded as ekhanei.com.[4][5]

Quadir is currently heading bKash which provides financial services through a network of community-based agents and existing technology, including mobile phones.[1] bKash is world’s second largest and fastest growing mobile financial services.[6][7]

Quadir is a founding member of Open World Initiatives, a Lausanne, Switzerland based organization of young thinkers. He is involved with Anwarul Quadir Foundation which recognises innovations in developing countries. He is a First Mover Fellow of The Aspen Institute. In 2009, TED selected Quadir a TED Fellow [8] and the World Economic Forum recognised him as a Young Global Leader.[9]

Early life

Quadir was an intern at Insight Venture Partners in New York, led the Business Development Division of Occidental Petroleum's initiative in Bangladesh and worked for New York City's Chamber of Commerce. He was also the co-founder and creative director of GlobeKids Inc., an animation company.

Quadir has a BA from Oberlin College and an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management.

He is also an artist whose art works are in the permanent collection of the Bangladesh National Museum and the Liberation War Museum.

bKash

bKash Limited is a joint venture between BRAC Bank Ltd., Bangladesh, and Money in Motion LLC, USA. aiming to provide access to a broader range of financial services for the people of Bangladesh. Later International Finance Corporation of the World Bank Group and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation became equity partners of the company.[10]

CellBazaar

CellBazaar is an electronic marketplace, launched in 2006 in Bangladesh, that allows buyers and sellers to connect with one another and buy and sell goods and services using their mobile phones or computers. Nokia, in their Expanding Horizons magazine, accredited CellBazaar as a door opener to mobile commerce.[11] After Telenor acquired CellBazaar in 2010, it got partially acquired by Schibsted Media Group in 2014.[4]

Awards

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=175903
  2. ↑ Highlighted Profiles of the Young Global Leaders, World Economic Forum
  3. ↑ http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122081673203508037.html
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 http://www.schibsted.com/en/Press-Room/News-archive/2013/Schibsted-Telenor-and-Singapore-Press-Holdings-team-up-in-online-classifieds-/
  5. ↑ http://www.dhakatribune.com/business/2014/jun/04/cellbazaar-formally-turns-ekhanei
  6. ↑ http://microfinance.brac.net/news-a-media/2013-03-11-03-50-20/184-cgap-publishes-brief-on-the-success-of-bkash-in-delivering-mobile-financial-services
  7. ↑ http://www.impatientoptimists.org/Posts/2014/06/Mobile-Money-in-Bangladesh-Shifting-from-Scale-to-Innovation
  8. ↑ http://blog.ted.com/2011/07/22/fellows-friday-with-kamal-quadir/
  9. ↑ http://www.weforum.org/young-global-leaders/kamal-quadir
  10. ↑ http://www.impatientoptimists.org/Posts/2014/06/Network-Effects-the-Entrepreneur-the-Investor-and-the-Poor-in-Bangladesh
  11. ↑ http://itidjournal.org/itid/article/viewFile/761/321
  12. ↑ http://www.weforum.org/news/schwab-foundation-social-entrepreneurship-announces-social-entrepreneurs-2015
  13. ↑ http://www.weforum.org/en/media/Latest%20Press%20Releases/PR_YGL2009
  14. ↑ http://www.globalmobileawards.com/awards-history/best-use-of-mobile-for-social-economic-development-2008/
  15. ↑
  16. ↑ http://www.manthanaward.org/section_full_story.asp?id=667
  17. ↑ http://www.techawards.org/laureates/stories/index.php?id=164
  18. ↑ http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2005/awards-ideas-0601.html

External links