Turtle Venture Studio: Where early stage startups find both guidance and funds

The Bangladeshi startup ecosystem is growing rapidly. There are lots of potential and untapped opportunities to explore. But just like other startups in the rest of the world, Bangladeshi startups face many hurdles, and most fail to create a significant impact.

In the startup ecosystem, venture capital firms and accelerator programs play key roles in aiding nascent startups. While venture capital firms deal with investment and provide financial resources to startups, accelerator programs focus on providing training, tools and an overall support system.

In contrast, a venture studio is a blended model of both venture capital and accelerator. 

Such an endeavour, named Turtle Venture Studio, has gained prominence lately. Saraban Tahura Turin, co-founder and CEO, discussed the rationale behind her initiative.

"Venture studio is a blended model between venture capital and accelerator," said Turin. "We take the money, investments and financial resources from venture capitals and training, tools and support systems from accelerators – and if you combine that, you get a venture studio."

Turin has personal experience in Bangladeshi tech companies for over eight years. She had also been involved in many workshops and incubators during that time. Her understanding is that while the ecosystem is growing fast, there's not enough support system for that.

"For the better part of my eight year-career, I've worked in multiple startups (Stricker Driver, Xen Tech, BetterStories Limited). Before founding Turtle Venture, I was the regional partner of She Loves Tech – an accelerator for female-led startups."

From her experience in the field and her desire to better the Bangladeshi ecosystem, she realised there was a gap in this sector. 

"So, from a global perspective, you will see that accelerator-supported startups' failure rate is 90% while it's only 14% for venture studio-supported ones. The contrast is huge, mainly because venture studios work closely with them, like a team member."

While the model is not new in Silicon Valley, she replicated the original model with the local context in mind. In this respect, she said, "Before starting out officially, we researched how to replicate it in the local context for more than a year. We talked with VC firms, founders and other players in the ecosystem and incorporated their suggestions."

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One important thing is her desire to help early-stage startups. According to her, "Venture capitals are risk averse; they want a surefire way of returns on their investments. As a result, they put money into later-stage startups, which are already doing very well."

"But we want to help early-stage startups – provide them with finances and training. That's our overall motto. As we have both capital and training tools, we are better positioned to help the emerging founders realise their goals."

The company works in two ways. First of all, the investors get information about the startups on their platform. Turtle Venture Studio provides all the data and presents them in a palatable way to attract more investors. 

Secondly, it provides all kinds of guidance to startups. In exchange for the services, startup founders will share some equity in their companies.

Turin said, "Most founders in our country come from engineering backgrounds. They probably have a great idea but don't know how to scale it. Even the founders from business backgrounds are naturally not experts in everything. So, we connect them with the right set of mentors and tools, and at the same time, we find them the right kind of team. We also help them in running day-to-day operations."

The journey of Turtle Venture Studio began in 2018. Now the company consists of 25 employees. Over the years, quite a few successful startups have come from their platforms. Dhaka Cast, Hello Task, Romoni, Cookups, Wander Women, Bonton Connect, Chaya, Edutechs etc., are some of the startups that worked with their accelerator program.

Anowar Sayef Anik, co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer, shed some light on their startups. "We have up our sleeve currently 13 startups. First of all, what we do is help them create a team. Because in the beginning, it's just the co-founders with an idea and a preliminary product. Then we help them to bring the product up to mark. We also guide them with the business plan they pitch to investors."

When asked about their business model and revenue sources, he said, "we organise various kinds of programs in partnership with local and global organisations, and that's our main source of revenue right now."

For instance, Turtle venture studio has organised several accelerators and incubators in the last two years. Some of them are Grameenphone Accelerator 3.0, Startup Accelerator by Bangladesh University, Food Frontiers 2021, Bridge for Impact etc.

He added that in the past two years, Turtle has worked with local companies like Grameenphone, LightCastle Partners and global sponsors like Roots of Impact, She Loves Tech etc. She Loves Tech, the world's largest tech platform for women in tech, has organised an accelerator for the last years, which Turtle Venture helped to organise. 

"Yet another source of income is generated from the equities of the startups we provide guidance to. To form a partnership with Turtle, startups have to grant some of their equity to Turtle. So when a startup gets funded from outside sources, as we help them throughout the process, the designated portion of the equity is shared with Turtle," Anik said.

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Turin wants Turtle Venture Studio to be a go-to platform for any early-stage startup. She justified her conviction with two points. 

"To begin with, accelerators and incubators will only help a startup in certain aspects. However, our platform will work just like a co-founder. Our experienced team will provide the expertise that they cannot afford otherwise."

"On the other hand," she added, "the startups will get access to our pool of investors – both angels and venture capitals. To give a number, five of our affiliated startups have raised over $180,000 over the years."

In terms of competition and collaboration, Turin said, "we believe in 3Cs: collaboration, connection and co-development. We can only compare and not compete yet, in terms of foreign players. We are like 10 or 15 years behind them."

However, Turin felt we need more VCs, accelerators and venture studios. "As the first venture studio, we're overwhelmed by the response. The ecosystem is so small that there's little scope for competition. Rather, we all are cooperating with each other."