Borno AI, an education-focused AI startup founded by two 17-year-olds, Tamzid Rahman and Rafid Ahmed, has been selected for the latest cohort of the prestigious Shift Grant program and has secured $45,000 in grant funding to accelerate its national rollout. Also secured $10,000 in grant funding from Emergent Ventures.

The grant is backed by Shift, a venture capital initiative known for supporting early-stage startups across education, technology, and social innovation. Shift runs competitive cohort programs aimed at scaling impactful ventures in emerging markets. Borno AI was chosen for its innovative application of artificial intelligence to improve access to quality education in Bangladesh.

The funding will be disbursed in three tranches, supporting the expansion of Borno AI across the country and enabling new features such as voice input with dialect detection. The full amount will be allocated in phases within the coming months.

Launched in April 2025, Borno AI is an AI tutor tailored to the Bangladesh National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB). It provides more than 40 million K–12 students with instant, curriculum-aligned academic assistance in both Bengali and English. The app has already completed a closed pilot with 200 high school students and is now preparing to raise a pre-seed round tied to early revenue growth.

“Our goal is to put a private tutor in every student’s pocket,” said Tamzid Rahman, Cofounder and CEO of Borno AI. His cofounder, Rafid Ahmed, added: “All student queries will shift to local servers next month to cut bandwidth use and protect privacy.”

Tamzid is also an Emergent Ventures Fellow, previously seen on Shark Tank Bangladesh, while Rafid earned a medal for Bangladesh at the 2024 International AI Olympiad.

Students can access Borno AI at: nctb.borno.io