Whenever people talk about financial strategy based competitions in Bangladesh, one of the first few names that come to mind is Finwitz, Blueprints, and Optimity. On a regular basis, these contests are arranged to test the participants' ability to crunch numbers in the most analytical way possible. The new finance competition, Capitalizer 2018, was launched to assess the level of command a finance enthusiast has over the capital market operations and its dynamics.
ASOI JV presents Capitalizer 2018, the flagship event of the Bangladesh University of Professionals Finance Society (BUPFS), evaluated the skills of participants in striking a fine chord between quantitative analysis and qualitative reasoning to strategise in issuing Initial Public Offering (IPO), which is incidentally the first step for any startup to turn into a public limited company. BUPFS, in association with ASOI JV-a real estate consultancy firm, successfully organised the very first edition of Capitalizer, an intra-BUP investment strategy based finance competition.
Capitalizer 2018 and the road to finale
The first edition of Capitalizer kicked off with the online round where 110 teams from different departments of BUP registered. The organisers arranged a workshop at Bijoy Auditorium of BUP on April 28, 2018 before the first round to enable the participants in getting a grip over the do's and don'ts regarding the submission material and procedures. This particular knowledge sharing session was conducted by a reputed finance practitioner-- KM Saqiful Alam. He is currently serving as a co-manager of Google Business Group Sonargaon.
During round one, also ornamented as 'Think the money way', participants were asked to come up with a proper capital budgeting of a given business plan for a timeframe of five years. They were required to set the price of the product/service mentioned in the given online case with a suitable rationale in addition to displaying a projected revenue model for five years of the specified business plan. From all the submissions, the best 18 teams proceeded to the second round. During round two, the selected teams had to capitalise on the hidden unique selling propositions (USPs) of the given business plan backed by a pitch deck to convince the jury for investing on the team's suggestion of significant provision of ownership to the investors. Following an intense round regulated by the rigorous screening process, the best six teams moved on to the grand finale of Capitalizer 2018.
The grand finale
The grand finale took place on May 11, 2018, at Bijoy Auditorium, BUP. Brigadier Farooque, dean, Faculty of Business Studies (FBS) was present at the event as the chief guest while Md Imrez Chowdhury, director of ASOI JV, was the special guest.
In the final round, also known as 'Capitalize it beyond', the task for the finalists was to develop strategies to issue Initial Public Offering (IPO) which would pave a path of financial viability to the startups resulting in the fulfillment of the investor's concern of wealth maximisation. The finalists were judged by the feasibility of their pricing method they undertook, underwriting efforts and other related criteria that affect the performance of a startup in the stock market. After an intense round of presentations followed by Q/A sessions, the much-anticipated results were announced. Team Kacchi without Elachi, a promising team from the Department of Management, batch-2017, emerged as the champions of Capitalizer 2018 and won Tk 50,000 as the prize. Team Acedia from the Department of BBA (General), batch-2018 and Fourth Echelon from the Department of BBA (General), batch-2015 were declared first runner-up and second runner-up respectively. The first and second runner-up were awarded Tk 30,000 and Tk 20,000 respectively.
Words from the champions
The champions, Team Kacchi without Elachi consisting of Jaber Bin Noor, Arham Tamkeen, Fahmeed Anis and Sadia Afroze Noor, shared their experiences about Capitalizer 2018.
Arham Tamkeen felt that this rendition of finance competition changed the concept of conventional practice served by existing finance competitions. He said, "Capitalizer 2018 has been a learning curve for my teammates and me. We got introduced to the real-life investment scenarios created by dint of task requirements".
All the rounds of Capitalizer 2018 were inter-related as such the teams found it challenging to pave out feasible proposition which would not harm their chances in the coming rounds. The teams had to be at their very best to stand out from the others.
Sadia Afroze Noor, another member of the winning team, also stressed on the essence of such competitions on the backdrop of present capital market conditions. She said, "It has boosted our confidence to do well in the capital market industry as the feedback we received from judges was nothing less than inspiring".
Words from the organisers
From its inception, BUPFS has always tried to add value to the finance enthusiasts of BUP through a stream of knowledge sharing seminars, workshops. This competition added a new feature to its offerings. Living up to the expectations of the participants and other concerned partners is not easy, especially for a new club like BUPFS. However, Sharar Bin Rahman, president of BUPFS, expressed his satisfaction over the work of his club and title sponsor in organising this particular event. He said, "The first edition of Capitalizer has brought many new things to the table as the concept of fundraising has been explored in other prevalent competitions before. Participants of Capitalizer will be able to implement the knowledge in future if they want to shine on capital structuring."
The writer is currently studying at Bangladesh University of Professionals (BUP) and is also the Junior Vice President (PR and Communications) of BUP Finance Society. He can be reached at
