Kajkey.com: New Bangla platform for local freelancers

Online marketplaces for freelancers have become popular worldwide in the last few decades. Freelancers use global platforms such as upwork.com and fiverr.com. But in Bangladesh, for many local service providers, English becomes a barrier.

Kajkey.com, a new local startup, might help here. The website claims to be the first Bangla freelancing platform in Bangladesh.

"Language is a major barrier for freelance workers here. We wanted to bridge this gap," says co-founder Sabbir Ahmed. "It's for those who want low-budget services too," he added.

Sabbir Ahmed is a digital marketer and an animator. In 2013, he started his career at bdjobs.com as a social media executive. After 5 years of working for different companies, he decided to start his own business.

Kajkey was introduced in October 2018 by Sabbir Ahmed and his partner Ahsan Ahmed. The website is now managed by a 30-member team. A seed investment has been raised. Now they're in the pipeline for the second seed investment.

Signing up at Kajkey is quite simple for freelancers. There is no registration fee as yet. Once signed up, the platform provides payment integration, legal support and customer care.

The payment policy is straightforward. Once work is finished, freelancers receive 75 percent of the full budget. Clients can pay through bKash and Nagad in addition to the global payment gateway. The platform will add a subscription-based and dynamic commission policy in the future.

"We have about 1700 verified users, 3000 clients and more than 1000 jobs open for bids," Sabbir Ahmed claims. "Nearly 80 percent of our clients and 60 percent of freelancers are new in such a marketplace. This is a nice indication of overcoming the crisis in our job market," he added.

Sabbir says the main challenge is to empower the niche industry. "Many companies are unaware of how much of a budget a specific job requires. Skilled freelancers don't want to bid for low-budget projects. Together with web developers, graphic designers and digital marketers, we look for vibrant fields as well," he said.

"Our website has more features after the launching of the new platform Kajkey V2. Now qualified freelancers can offer their services as a gig with their own price. Instead of solely applying for employers requests, freelancers can post a gig with a description of offered services, show examples of previous work, and the cost of services. If interested users can order services on the gig pages instead of making a post requesting the service.

Companies must post jobs costing a minimum of Tk500 in our new platform. There is also a policy for minimum bidding," Sabbir added.

Kajkey is also planning to develop the expertise of new freelancers and to collaborate with different institutes to hire qualified freelancers.