With its fast-growing population of 165 million people, ranking the country as the 7th largest in the world, a very young population (60% is below 30 years old), and a growing web penetration, Bangladesh is an unexplored market full of opportunities for innovative startups. Its startup ecosystem is still very young but a few initiatives are born the last few years to support the few local dynamic entrepreneurs, mainly diasporans back from Canada, the US or other countries. It all started after the release of the video documentary Startup Dhaka in 2013, which wanted to create awareness about the local entrepreneurs trying to tackle the country's problems and the lack of support and infrastructure in the country to help them grow faster. The documentary had been financed thanks to crowd founding, raising over US$9.000 on Indiegogo from 56 backers from around the world. The positive reception of the video incited the team of Startup Dhaka to turn the initiative into an online magazine, SDAsia.co, to promote local ideas and businesses. They also launched the first tech conference, Innovation Xtreme, in November 2014, allowing 10 local startups to pitch, sometimes for the first time, to international venture capitalists. "We hope to change the narrative along with the international perception of Bangladesh through these success stories in our startup community" said Mustafizur Khan, the brain behind Startup Dhaka and SDAsia.co. The event brought together over 350 people including entrepreneurs, investors, corporate employees and aspiring entrepreneurs and was sold-out three days before it started. While 2014 was about building the brand, 2015 will be about creating a real impact for the Bangladeshi startup ecosystem, with the first accelerator rollout expected in first half quarter of 2015. "We plan to start out with 3-5 startup teams and will focus our attention on building partnerships and bringing the expertise on board that will help accelerate our teams to the next level" said Samad Miraly, one collaborator of the project. An XAsia early stage venture fund of $2 million will also be created to provide financial support to local startups.