Driving financial inclusion for CMSMEs and women: FinLab Bangladesh

• Jul 26, 2025
• 1 min

Despite contributing 25% of Bangladesh’s GDP and employing 7.8 million people, Cottage, Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (CMSMEs) face a USD 2.5 billion credit gap, particularly in rural areas. Women’s financial access also remains limited, restricting their participation in the formal economy.

To address these challenges, MSC, in collaboration with a2i, UNCDF, and Bangladesh Bank, launched FinLab Bangladesh, an accelerator program to bridge the financial gap for CMSMEs and empower women through inclusive fintech innovation.

MSC played a key role in designing and executing FinLab Bangladesh through the following efforts:

• We developed an inclusive accelerator to address CMSME finance and women’s financial inclusion challenges, selecting 8 high-potential startups from 123 applications.
• We provided mentorship and technical assistance, supporting startups with expert guidance, grants, and resources to scale their impact.
• We built an innovation ecosystem, enabling collaboration between fintechs, financial institutions, and regulators to develop solutions benefiting 100,000 female garment workers and 50,000 microenterprises.

We supported Mutual Trust Bank (MTB), Dana FinTech, and Apon Wellbeing Ltd. in expanding financial access through inclusive solutions. We partnered with Bangladesh Bank to align with regulatory and policy frameworks. We also facilitated investor and market linkages, connecting startups with funders, partners, and industry networks to drive growth.