Kernel Fund - seed investment
Ideas compile here
A kernel is the smallest thing an operating system needs to boot, and the smallest thing a plant needs to grow. Kernel Fund is fringecore’s version of both: BDT 10,00,000 in seed funding for three people with an idea that fixes a process, and an honest audit of the numbers, the process and the supply chain to find out if it works.
Seed funding
BDT 10,00,000
10 lakh taka. Not a grant, not a loan.
What you get
Seed funding, and an honest audit.
Money is the part everyone offers. What we add is our team, looking hard at your numbers, your process and your supply chain the way people who run shops, floors and routes of their own do.
01 · The funding
BDT 10 lakh in seed funding
Not a grant, not a loan: an investment, which means we are in it with you. Enough to get the first version out and the first customer paying.
02 · The audits
Our team, auditing yours
Our team sits down with the three of you and audits the books, the process and the supply chain at the points where a young business usually leaks, and tells you plainly what we see and how to run it better.
03 · The field
Distribution you cannot buy
15+ MUDI outlets, 64 districts through Product Sense, 60,000 workers through Roshod, 325 screens through AD-IQ. Test on real shelves and real floors from week one.
What we look for
Three people, one idea, one video.
The bar is not a deck and it is not a number on a cap table. It is whether the three of you can start money moving, and how many people you already know who will buy from you, supply you, or deliver for you.
It is not about valuation. It is about how fast your cash flow starts.
And how strong the supply network you already have is: the people who will sell to you, buy from you and move things for you on day one.
- 01
The team
Three people, three seats
One runs operations, one runs finance, one executes: builds the thing or sells it. Three founders, or a founder and two people who have committed. Not one person wearing three hats.
- 02
The idea
A process you know from the inside
Something broken today, in a sector on the list or in a shop on your street. You do not need a company or a product. You need to know exactly who suffers and what the fix is.
- 03
The video
Two and a half minutes, any language
Record the idea and the three of you on a phone and send us the link with the form. Bangla, English or whatever you think best in. Nobody is grading the language, and it does not have to be English.
- 04
The test
Cash flow before valuation
We do not ask what the company is worth. We ask how soon the first customer pays and who is already lined up to supply, stock and deliver. A tea stall with a route beats a deck with a market-size slide.
Where we write cheques
Ten sectors. One test: does it fix a process?
Each of these is a sector where somebody we know is losing a day a week to a workaround. That is what we fund: not a category, a specific pain, and the people who have decided to end it. The tenth is the street itself: tea stalls, food carts and the Bangla businesses that can start selling next week.
Not on the list? Pitch it anyway. The list is where we have an edge, not a wall.
- 01
Capital markets
Tools for the retail investor, the brokerage back office, and the market data nobody has cleaned.
- 02
Hospitals
Queues, beds, billing, referrals. The operational layer that clinicians currently work around.
- 03
Medical AI
Triage, diagnostics and records intelligence built for a ward with forty patients per doctor.
- 04
Construction AI
Progress from site photos, material reconciliation and safety, on projects that still run on paper.
- 05
Factory optimisation
Line balancing, downtime, energy and yield. Ten thousand small losses on a single floor.
- 06
B2B sales
Distributor ordering, field force, credit and collections. Wherever the margin actually leaks.
- 07
Commodities
Pricing, sourcing and the paper trail behind every container of raw material coming in.
- 08
Logistics
Routing, last mile and the warehouse in between. Built for Dhaka traffic, not a simulator.
- 09
Shipping
Freight, customs, berths and vessel schedules. Chattogram moves the economy over phone calls.
- 10
Local business
A tea stall, a food cart, a tailoring shop, a delivery route. Bangla businesses that start selling in a week, not a quarter.
How a pitch runs
Three steps. The first takes ten minutes and a phone.
We read every pitch and watch every video the week it arrives, and reply either way. If it is a yes, you are sitting with us within a month, not a committee within a quarter.
- 01
Ten minutes on the pitch form, plus your video
Who the three of you are, what is broken, what you would build, and a link to a video of up to two and a half minutes: the idea and the founders, in whichever language you are most comfortable in. Attach a deck if you have one; no format, no length limit. Vague is the only thing that does not work.
- 02
Coffee at the Gulshan office
An hour with two of us and the three of you, at the office in Gulshan 2. We will argue with the idea a little. That is the good sign.
- 03
Terms, funding, and the first audit
Terms in writing, then the funding lands, then our team sits down with yours for the first audit of your numbers, your process and your supply chain. The milestone is your first paying customer.
Before you pitch
The questions founders ask first.
How much is the funding?
BDT 10,00,000 in seed funding. It is an investment, not a grant and not a loan. How much of it goes into any one idea depends on what that idea needs to start cash flowing, so do not size your plan to the number; size it to the first paying customer.
What do you do beyond the money?
Our team audits yours. We sit down with the three of you and go through the books, the process and the supply chain at the points where a young business usually leaks, then tell you plainly what we see and how to run it better. People who run shops, floors and routes of their own, looking at yours.
Do I need a team, a company, or a product?
A team, yes. Kernel Fund backs teams of three: one person on operations, one on finance, and one executor who builds the thing or sells it. A company and a product can come later; those three people and an idea cannot. If you are one person with an idea, find your other two first, then pitch.
What goes in the video?
Up to two and a half minutes: the idea, and the three of you. A phone camera is fine. Speak whichever language you are most comfortable in - Bangla, English or anything else. Nobody is grading the language, and it does not have to be English. Upload it somewhere we can open it (YouTube unlisted, Google Drive, Loom) and paste the link into the form.
What do you take in return?
It is an investment, so we take a stake. The exact terms depend on the stage and what we are putting in beyond money, and we settle them in the second conversation, in writing, before anything starts.
What makes an idea a yes?
It is not about valuation. It is about how fast your cash flow starts, and how strong the supply network you already have is: who will buy from you, supply you and deliver for you in the first month. It fixes a process somebody currently suffers through, and the three of you know that process from the inside. We are not looking for the next social app.
Can I pitch a tea stall?
Yes. Local business is a sector on the list on purpose: a tea stall, a food cart, a tailoring shop, a delivery route. A Bangla business that starts selling next week, with a team of three and a supply network already in place, is exactly the kind of cash flow we want to back.
My sector isn't on the list.
Pitch it anyway. The ten sectors are where we have an edge - operators to call, floors to test on, shelves to stock - not a filter. A strong idea outside them gets read the same afternoon.
How do I pitch?
The pitch form takes ten minutes: who the three of you are, what is broken, who suffers, what you would build, how soon the first customer pays, and a link to your video, plus a deck if you have one. If you would rather email, team@fringecore.sh with the subject “Kernel Fund pitch: your idea” reaches the same people; send the video link there too.
$ pitch @fringecore_
Three people, an idea, and a 2.5-minute video in any language. What is broken, who suffers, what you would build, and how soon the first customer pays. We reply within the week, either way.
- 01 Ten minutes on the pitch form, plus your video
- 02 Coffee at the Gulshan office
- 03 Terms, funding, and the first audit