EkkBaz

EkkBaz operates a business-to-business (B2B) marketplace featuring an embedded financing platform tailored for small businesses. The company was established in 2021 by co-founders Enam Chowdhury and Zobaida Sultana. An earlier iteration of the company appears to have been founded by Enam Chowdhury in March 2017. Chowdhury, a former Microsoft executive, and Sultana, a veteran with over 20 years in the supply chain and technology sectors, created EkkBaz to provide small enterprises with access to affordable financing and a platform to market their products and services. Chowdhury's personal background, having grown up in a large family facing financial hardship and later working with a family-run grocery store, motivated him to address the challenges small businesses encounter in the digital era. He returned to Bangladesh from Singapore to launch EkkBaz with Sultana, aiming to advance digitization at the grassroots level.

The company primarily serves small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), particularly neighborhood grocery and mom-and-pop stores, within the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector. Its geographic focus includes Bangladesh, Singapore, and Vietnam. EkkBaz's business model combines e-commerce with a Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) offering, a model that has proven successful in the Southeast Asian market. The platform is free for grocery store owners; revenue is generated by charging manufacturers for platform use. The platform connects these small retailers to suppliers and financing, offering services such as warehouse inventory management, logistics support, and micro-lending solutions. This enables businesses to fill inventories, operate digitally, and even rent out in-store space for promotions. Initially, the platform was also designed with artificial intelligence and blockchain technologies to simplify B2B interactions.

EkkBaz has achieved significant milestones, including securing seed funding from investors like SOSV, Haitou Global, KeyStone Capital, Artesian, and Enterprise Singapore. In its first year of operation, the company reported a 46-fold increase in revenue and a 200x spike in gross merchandise value. The firm received approximately $150,000 in seed funding from SOSV in early 2022 and later raised an additional $500,000 to facilitate team growth and operational expansion.

Keywords: B2B marketplace, embedded financing, SME financing, FMCG, supply chain technology, Buy Now Pay Later, BNPL, e-commerce platform, small business empowerment, retail tech, logistics support, inventory management, micro-lending, Southeast Asia, Bangladesh, Singapore, Enam Chowdhury, Zobaida Sultana, grocery tech, digital commerce