SAJIDA Foundation

SAJIDA Foundation is a Dhaka-based value-driven NGO and investor that backs health enterprises in Bangladesh, including mental health platform Relaxy. The vehicle writes pre-seed and seed checks under $250K, and its healthcare interest is concentrated in mental and behavioral health and digital health, with no explicit AI focus. SAJIDA’s positioning is unusual in the Bangladeshi venture landscape because the foundation combines philanthropic operational depth in healthcare delivery with a venture-style investment posture, which gives it a credibility on health-outcomes diligence that purely commercial investors cannot match. The geographic focus is Bangladesh with selective expansion into the broader South Asian region for the strongest companies. The right founder profile is a Bangladeshi or South Asian founder building a tech-enabled mental health or digital health business that genuinely expands access for underserved populations, ideally with early commercial traction and a measurable health-outcomes story alongside a credible commercial trajectory. The wrong fit is a premium consumer wellness brand, a research-stage biotech, or a Western-market-first company; SAJIDA’s mandate is concentrated in Bangladeshi health enterprises with social impact. The right entry path is through Dhaka founder networks, through SAJIDA’s broader philanthropic ecosystem, through warm introductions from regional impact-aligned investors and accelerators including BRAC, Aavishkaar, and Acumen, and through Bangladeshi diaspora operators based in Singapore, the UK, and the US. When pitching, lead with both the health-outcomes story and the commercial trajectory; SAJIDA underwrites both, and pitches that emphasize one without the other will not resonate. Caveats: SAJIDA is a foundation-affiliated investor with limited follow-on capacity at venture scale, and founders should plan for institutional capital from regional impact-aligned and conventional VCs as the company scales. The Bangladeshi domestic market alone is also constrained relative to South Asian peers, so a credible regional or international expansion thesis is essential. Use SAJIDA as the values-aligned Bangladeshi early partner that strengthens your impact positioning and connects to the broader regional development-finance ecosystem.