FigureAsia 35 Under 35 · Healthcare
Arefin Zaman
Age 29 · Digital pharmacy, telehealth and home diagnostics · Dhaka, Bangladesh
Bangladeshi founder whose platform recorded 285,000 medicine orders and 10,500 video consultations by early 2025, with later company-reported growth to 500,000 users.
- Approximate age at 31 December 2025
- 29
- Field
- Healthcare
- Country or region
- Dhaka, Bangladesh
- FigureAsia U35 Assessment
- 84.5 / 100
Profile
Career and documented record
Arefin Zaman has built around the fragmentation that patients experience between a prescription, a trusted medicine source, a specialist and a diagnostic sample. A February 2025 impact-investor dossier recorded more than 285,000 medicine orders, 32,000 customers, 10,500 video consultations and access to over 100 doctors. Later in 2025, Zaman reported that the platform had crossed 500,000 users, BDT1 billion in cumulative revenue and 200 employees.
The later metrics are founder-reported, and the company's current website uses a different, much larger “satisfied customer” number. Because definitions appear inconsistent, FigureAsia uses the dated figures with explicit provenance and does not reconcile them into an invented total.
Zaman's agency is clear: he has led the company from inception and assembled pharmacy delivery, consultation and home-sample collection in one operating model. The public evidence is stronger on reach and commerce than on prescription safety, clinical quality or health outcomes. His inclusion recognizes national infrastructure-building in a lower-middle-income market while keeping those quality questions open.
FigureAsia selection
Why Arefin Zaman is on the list
FigureAsia selected Zaman because he has created a locally built digital-health operator with meaningful documented activity in Bangladesh. The model addresses real continuity and specialist-access barriers, and his founder role is unambiguous. The score is deliberately lower than for services with audited outcomes or regulatory evidence, reflecting conflicting user definitions and limited independent clinical-quality data.
Verified work
The 2025–26 record
Principal milestone
285,000 medicine orders recorded by February 2025
Evidence record
10,500 video consultations recorded by February 2025
Scale or implementation
500,000 users later reported by the founder
Field context
The work in its field
Within digital pharmacy, telehealth and home diagnostics, the relevant test is whether a result can survive scrutiny of maturity, attribution, validity and practical fit. That distinction matters: completed evidence is not projected benefit, and individual responsibility is not interchangeable with the wider team’s achievement.
FigureAsia U35 Assessment
Assessment breakdown
84.5out of 100
Substantive 2025–2026 contribution
18 / 20
The score reflects completed 2025–26 work in digital pharmacy, telehealth and home diagnostics, assessed at the documented maturity of deployed national digital-health service.
Verified impact
12 / 15
Impact credit is limited to the measured study, regulatory, implementation or operating record stated in the profile; unsupported patient benefit is excluded.
Originality and distinction
8 / 10
The work creates or materially advances a distinctive capability within digital pharmacy, telehealth and home diagnostics rather than relying on title or institutional association.
Field and industry influence
8 / 10
The assessment recognises demonstrated effects on research, product development, care delivery or professional practice, with publicity alone carrying no weight.
Individual agency
10 / 10
Named authorship and the documented role of Cofounder and Chief Executive Officer establish individual responsibility while preserving credit for collaborators.
Durability and trajectory
4 / 5
The cited work forms part of a continuing programme, platform or research trajectory rather than a single uncompleted announcement.
Asian significance and global relevance
5 / 5
The Asian connection is material to the person's identity, operating base or populations served: Bangladeshi founder based in Dhaka.
Clinical and scientific validity
4.2 / 7
Clinical and scientific validity is calibrated to deployed national digital-health service, with the profile retaining the evidence boundary attached to the result.
Safety, quality and responsible governance
4.9 / 7
Safety and governance credit reflects accurate regulatory language, study limitations, data stewardship and the refusal to turn early evidence into clinical certainty.
Translation and care-pathway fit
5.4 / 6
The work is scored for its demonstrated fit with a laboratory, regulatory, clinical, operational or public-health pathway, not for projected future adoption.
Access, equity and resource stewardship
5 / 5
Access credit reflects documented reach, capacity, affordability or inclusion while distinguishing service volume from proven clinical outcome.