The Bangladesh youth entrepreneurship scene has come far over the last decade and more. As of 2020, around 63.7 percent of the country’s population were under the age of 35, suggesting that there is a wide window of opportunity to capitalize on this demographic dividend and bring fruits of success for the growing nation.

At the same time, regardless of the onslaught of the pandemic, unemployment has been one of the most rising and ever-present challenges facing our developing nation, the brute of which are being faced by the young people. This is where Youth Entrepreneurship comes in, with its high potential to address this challenge and drive inclusive growth and sustainable development.

UNDP – under the Youth Co:Lab initiative co-led by UNDP and Citi Foundation – the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) and Startup Bangladesh Limited produced this first-of-its-kind study to provide data-driven recommendations to strengthen the ecosystem for youth entrepreneurship in Bangladesh and amplify the potential of youth-led enterprises. The research for this paper was conducted and consolidated by LightCastle in an effort to provide an overview of the youth entrepreneurship ecosystem of our country.