ShopUp wants to be listed on NASDAQ, says its CEO

ShopUp wants to be listed on the NASDAQ (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations) stock market, its founder and CEO Afeef Zaman said in Dhaka yesterday.

In a knowledge-sharing programme titled "Insight Exchange: Behind the Scenes of a Startup" at a hotel in the capital, the ShopUp CEO said, "Our 65% investors are foreign. That's why we want to be listed in NASDAQ as the first Bangladeshi company. Now it is our dream." 

He added, "It is a very hard task. But I think it is still possible. When we will be listed, the foreign investors will be more attracted to our company. If we can work together, I hope we will be the first NASDAQ-listed company from Bangladesh."

ShopUp is the Singapore-based parent company of Bangladeshi B2B commerce platform Mokam, nationwide smart courier service Redx, and the lately launched FinTech Onkur.

Many people have misconceptions about startups. A startup is not a business model, it is a way of starting a business, he said.

Mamun Rashid, president of ShopUp, said, "Our job is to bring products from big producers to small shops so that they can deliver them to the consumers on time and at fair prices. Although we do not deal directly with consumers, we connect manufacturers with retailers."

He further said, "We have reached over 3.1 crore people through a vast network of small shops. Our target is to increase the number to 8 crore."

Shabab Bin Shareq, director of ShopUp, said Peter Theil, an investor in Facebook, is one of ShopUp's investors. That time he invested $500,000, but he eventually earned $1 billion from Facebook, Shareq said.

"The failure rate of startups is around 90%. But investors invest with risk because if a startup succeeds, all their investment will be recovered. After five years of journey, we can say now that we are safe," he said.