Bhutan’s first AI startup: Run by seven college students, national institutes are clients
NoMindBhutan has paved the way for the others to succeed, but for that, the Himalayan country’s closed tech ecosystem will have to evolve.
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This article was originally published in Rest of World, which covers technology’s impact outside the West.
When college students Ugyen Dendup and Jamphel Yigzin Samdrup launched their startup last year, they had yet to learn that they would spend most of their time servicing some of the most prestigious institutions in Bhutan.
Dendup and Samdrup are the founders of NoMindBhutan, the country’s first artificial intelligence startup that makes and deploys chatbots. The company’s eight clients include the Bhutan National Bank, the country’s flag carrier Drukair – Royal Bhutan Airlines, the Bhutan National Digital Identity programme, the National Land Commission, and the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Employment.
In a country that has only 15 homegrown tech startups, according to data from startup analytics firm Tracxn, this is a feat – and one that is paving the way for others. But given Bhutan’s closed physical and digital economy, NoMindBhutan’s journey is not easy. Startup and tech industry experts believe that for Bhutan to truly benefit from AI, the entire ecosystem needs to evolve.
“When we started, we [didn’t] really [have] a big dream … We just wanted to bring in AI tools suitable for all the Bhutanese context,” Dendup, 23, told Rest of World. “We have brought lots of big companies and big government...
