Online Desk: A new window has been opened for young entrepreneurs as the global phenomenon show “Shark Tank” is finally coming to Bangladesh as Shark Tank Bangladesh.

Organisers informed this in a programme to announce the name of the Sharks ( Business leaders) at a city hotel on Saturday.

Shooting for the much-anticipated show is scheduled to kick off on February 12th, after having screened more than 2,000 companies to select the best businesses. Producers from Sony, Arch Dyson, and Kevin Hyland, who have helped supervise and produce versions of the show around the world, will be present in Dhaka to unveil the Sharks and oversee the first few days of the shoot.

Bangladesh’s top OTT platform, Bongo, signed a deal with Sony Pictures Entertainment to bring the world’s number-one business show to Bangladesh.

“Shark Tank” allows entrepreneurs to pitch their business idea to a panel of investors, known as “Sharks”, who can offer the entrepreneurs cash for a deal if they like the opportunity. Whether it is a prototype of a new product, an existing product or service, or a company looking for a financial injection to grow, the entrepreneurs have to convince the five “Sharks” to invest in their idea and help turn their life’s work into a household name.

Since launching in 2001 as “Money Tigers” on Nippon TV in Japan, the format has become a phenomenal worldwide success. It is produced in territories on every continent under a variety of names including “Dragon’s Den”, “Lion’s Den,” and of course “Shark Tank.”

Organisers said the format has seen Dragons, Lions, and Sharks, all hugely successful entrepreneurs themselves, invest nearly $1 billion through all versions of the franchise across the globe, enabling dozens of companies to grow significantly.

Entrepreneurs who have been onboarded into the “Shark” ecosystem have seen massive growth and generated billions of dollars in sales after receiving deals and being featured on the show, they also said.

After a long wait, the panel of Bangladeshi Sharks is ready to be unveiled. The investors, aka Sharks, are all business leaders in their own right and are excited to hear the pitches from the innovative Bengali entrepreneurs.

The announced sharks are- Sami Ahmed, Managing Director and CEO of Startup Bangladesh Limited (SBL), the Managing Director of Adcomm Holding Group which has investments in Advertising, IT, Hospitality, and Media, Golam Murshed, the Managing Director of Majesto Limited,

Kazi M. Hassan, CEO of Robi’s digital ventures arm R Ventures PLC, Samanzar Khan is the Managing Director of A K S Khan Holdings Ltd, Fahim Mashroor, Managing Director of Bdjobs.com, the most popular online job searching platform in the country, Ahmed R. Ali, Founder and Chairman of TISTA Science and Technology Corporation.

Deepto TV will broadcast the inaugural season of the show while it will be streamed on Bongo.