In a country where millions of graduates submit large numbers of job applications without receiving a response, two university students have sought to build a solution to address the gap.

Md Siam Hosen, a student of the Institute of Business Administration at Jahangirnagar University (IBA-JU), and Md Nayem Mia, a BBA student at the University of Dhaka, have jointly launched Gradzen, which they describe as Bangladesh’s first homegrown professional social media platform designed exclusively for career development, job seeking and skill verification.

The platform was launched on 23 April 2026 with a range of tools that combine professional networking and recruitment support in one place.

According to the founders, these include a professional social feed, a CV builder with multiple themes, a job application tracker, an AI-powered CV-to-job-description matching tool, an applicant tracking system (ATS) for employers, pay-as-you-go courses, and a skill verification system through which candidates can demonstrate their abilities through practical projects rather than certificates alone.

Hosen said existing platforms often charge employers thousands of taka simply to post a job, while many students still submit CVs in Word documents.

“We built Gradzen because we lived this problem,” he said.

Unlike many existing platforms, Gradzen does not charge employers to post jobs.

Instead, the platform follows a postpaid model in which users receive an initial credit balance upon signing up, and charges apply only for premium services such as the CV-to-job-description matching tool, which the founders said starts at Tk1 per check.

The platform’s courses follow a pulse billing model, meaning learners are charged only for the seconds they actively watch, reducing the risk of paying for content they do not complete.

Gradzen has been built as a progressive web app (PWA), meaning it does not require downloading from an app store and can be installed on Android and iPhone devices within seconds.

The founders said this offers a practical advantage in a market where storage limitations and data costs remain important concerns for users.

Although the platform formally launched today, the founders said it had already drawn international attention ahead of its release through e-learning idea Courseelo.

They also said the platform secured a grant from the International Growth Centre (IGC), a research initiative jointly associated with Oxford University and the London School of Economics, and won the national championship at Startup Dhaka’s Road to Anywhere competition.

The recognition, they said, has added credibility to what began as a student-led initiative built without external funding.

The founders said their immediate goal is to bring hundreds of companies onto the platform and build an active community of professionals through its social feed, positioning Gradzen not only as a job platform but also as a broader professional networking space for Bangladesh.

“This is Bangladesh’s own platform,” Hosen said. “Built here, for here.”