Nagad Becomes Bangladesh’s Newest $1B Fintech Unicorn.

Nagad, a government-owned mobile financial service, has just become Bangladesh’s fastest fintech unicorn. In less than four years after its launch, the company became the fastest to cross the $1 billion valuation mark in the U.S. The exceptional progress is due in part to the government’s program to support digital finance, improve financial access and discourage reliance on cash. Its digital-led system, advanced systems and policies serving all groups have played a central role in Bangladesh’s economic growth.

A Digital Leap in Financial Inclusion

Soon after its debut in March 2019 with the Bangladesh Post Office, Nagad handled daily transactions worth approximately USD 120 million and was used by more than 80 million people. During Bangladesh Startup Summit 2023, the company was recognized as the Fastest to Unicorn. Much of its success came from adopting Bangladesh’s first fully digital e-KYC which means customers could open new accounts in just a few moments using their ID cards. The company was the first to create a USSD–App link, giving rural users on both feature phones and smartphones access to mobile wallets.

Thanks to this new approach, it was cheaper and faster to bring in new users from many different parts of the population. For this reason, Nagad rapidly became a key part of Bangladesh’s efforts to digitize financial services.

Driving Economic Growth Through Technology

With the help of its Founding Executive Director, Md. Shafayet Alam, Nagad served people outside of the formal financial sector. In total, more than 300,000 small and micro businesses have taken advantage of free QR codes to make payments easier. With this, people involved in informal work started using official systems, making them easier to track and show in national accounts.

With the new leaders, Nagad is planning growth by incorporating AI into micro-credit systems, joining more government online services and considering opening in other countries. Those studying the industry are carefully following Nagad’s growth as a case of affordable and widely accessible financial services in emerging nations.