When senior officials from more than two dozen countries met online for a SIDSSA G20-linked global summit in 2025, they skipped the usual options. No Zoom or Google Meet. Instead, they logged into Convay, a meeting platform built in Dhaka.
Unlike these foreign platforms, Convay is not just for scheduling meetings. It also offers secure video and audio calls and integrates its own cloud services, making it a fully unified communication and collaboration platform. For a Bangladeshi app to be chosen for a high-level international event is rare. But the platform’s rise reflects its focus on solving problems that many popular video-meeting tools still struggle with. This includes data control, accountability and reliable performance even in places where the internet is far from perfect.
Convay was first developed internally at Synesis IT before the COVID-19 pandemic to manage office work. “We started as an internal tool for office meetings and it has grown into a global hub and collaboration platform. We publicly launched in 2023. Today, a team of around 50 engineers maintain and improve the platform, which is now used in more than 45 countries,” said Aminul Bari Shuvro, Chief Solutions Officer at Synesis IT Ltd.
Beyond video calls
Most online meeting tools focus on one thing: helping people talk to each other in real time. Once the call ends, everything else has to be handled separately. Convay was designed to close that gap.
Instead of treating meetings as isolated video sessions, the app organises everything that happens before, during and after a meeting in one place. Before a meeting starts, organisers can schedule sessions, set agendas and share relevant documents securely. During meetings, Convay supports structured discussions. Conversations, decisions and key points are captured as part of the process. After the meeting ends, records of discussions, decisions and action items remain stored securely on the platform.
“Meetings are where organisations make decisions,” said Shuvro. “Convay was built to make those decisions traceable and accountable, not lost once the call ends.” This end-to-end approach makes the platform particularly useful for governments, enterprises and institutions that need meetings to produce clear outcomes.
From the start, the team focused on organisations rather than casual users. “Governments, enterprises and regulated sectors need more than just meetings. They need accountability, records and control,” Shuvro explained. This thinking helped Convay gain acceptance in public sector institutions, research organisations, development agencies, and enterprises operating across borders.
Why data control matters
One of Convay’s strongest selling points is ‘data sovereignty’. This means organisations can decide where their data is stored and who controls it. In many regions, especially in the European Union, strict laws such as General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) regulate how data can be handled. Countries like China and others across Asia and Africa have their own data localisation rules.
“Data is now a strategic asset,” said Shuvro. “Many global platforms give limited control over where meeting data is stored or processed. That creates risks for governments and regulated organisations.”
Convay addresses this by offering cloud, hybrid and on-premises deployment options. “We’ve our own cloud platform,” Shuvro explained. “Organisations can host the platform locally if needed. This makes compliance easier and reduces dependency on foreign jurisdictions.”
Bangladeshi platform at global event
These concerns were central at the SIDSSA 2025 summit in South Africa. Convay was chosen as the official platform for ministers and senior officials from 27 countries.
“At that level, meetings involve sensitive discussions, multiple languages and participants joining from very different network conditions. The platform has to work reliably for everyone,” said Moinul Islam, Head of Software Development at Synesis IT Ltd.
Convay supported multilingual transcription, structured documentation and smooth participation for all attendees, even in areas with unstable internet. Many parts of the world still struggle with slow or unreliable internet. Convay was built with this reality in mind. Adaptive bitrate streaming, intelligent audio prioritisation, and bandwidth-aware codecs ensure calls continue even when connectivity fluctuates.
“Reliable communication should not depend on perfect internet,” said Al Amru Bil Maruf, Software Engineer, Convay team. “We designed this app assuming real-world constraints. Not everyone has fast internet, not everyone speaks the same language and not every organisation can hand over its data to a foreign system.”
AI that works quietly
Artificial intelligence is deeply embedded in the app, but it does not overwhelm users with complex features. Moinul explained how AI improves audio clarity through noise suppression and echo cancellation.
Convay currently supports transcription in Bangla, English, French, Portuguese and Spanish. According to the company, the accuracy of transcription is around 93 per cent. “AI should reduce workload, not add complexity,” said Moinul. “Our goal was to let people focus on discussions, not note-taking.”
Why policy and strategy matter
Convay’s success is not just about technology. Governments and enterprises play a big role in making platforms like it work globally. Public institutions handle sensitive data and policy discussions, so they need systems that are secure, compliant and under local control.
“Governments have an urgent responsibility to protect citizen data and ensure meetings remain confidential,” Shuvro added. He also pointed out a striking reality: they’ve received more positive responses from users in Africa than in Bangladesh. “Sometimes it feels like our own people don’t show enough interest in homegrown products.”
Policies that prioritise data localisation and security standards can help platforms like Convay gain adoption. According to Moinul, “in our country, digital transformation is accelerating. Clear support from the government can reduce reliance on foreign tools and boost locally developed solutions.”
Government adoption
The Bangladesh government has shown strong confidence in Convay, purchasing 100,000 licenses for official use. The platform is now in the implementation phase, according to the company. Alongside Bangladesh, several African governments and public institutions are also using Convay for official communication. Together, these deployments mark one of the largest-scale adoptions of a Bangladeshi software product for secure government communication.
What’s next?
Moinul said that Convay’s roadmap goes beyond just meetings. The platform already includes secure chat, voice calls, video calls and file sharing. All are built with the same focus on security and compliance. “Future updates will expand AI features, improve multilingual support and add deeper productivity insights,” he added.
According to the team, the long-term goal is to offer a unified collaboration suite for modern organisations that value control, structure and trust. It may not try to replace other platforms with casual calls. But for governments, enterprises and institutions that see meetings as serious business, it is offering something different, and that difference is now being noticed well beyond Dhaka.
