13 startups graduate at Nest I/O demo day

The Demo Day gave rising entrepreneurs a platform to pitch their ideas, display their products, and engage investors

KARACHI: The 9th incubation cycle of The Nest I/O commenced this February and welcomed 13 startups chosen from over 500 applications. To celebrate the graduation of these exciting new startups, a Demo Day was organized on Wednesday at The Nest I/O, in Karachi.

“With the graduation of our 9th cohort, the total number of The Nest I/O startups is now more than 160, 74.5% of these are still operational. With each batch, the quality of teams is improving. We are so proud to have facilitated the growth of all these amazing startups and hope to continue helping entrepreneurs across the country,” commented Jehan Ara, President P@SHA and Founder The Nest I/O.



Since 2015, The Nest I/O has been organizing Demo Days at the end of its yearly 4-month program to give rising entrepreneurs an opportunity to pitch their ideas, display their products, and engage investors.

High profile individuals attending the 2019 Demo Day included Yusuf Jan, Founder Eat Mubarak, Farhan Qureshi and Raza Matin from Google, Kashif Merchant from EO, and Asad Khan from Careem amongst others.

“I haven’t been to The Nest I/O for a while now and it was a lovely surprise for me to see the quality of startups. I was really impressed by the teams I have seen here. Batch 9 has more teams based on media and content and this is the first time I’m seeing teams that are so crisp and know exactly who they are and what they want to do,” commented Yusuf Jan.



A diverse range of startups was showcased at the event. Namkeen Sach is a content creation company with over 100,000 subscribers that creates Pakistani based content while also providing a platform to other local content creators. ParentsPlus is an app designed to empower special-needs caretakers by creating a needs-centric, real-time support community. iWant is an online marketplace aiming to redefine the daily conduct of businesses across Pakistan by bringing a variety of service providers to your phone.

Other startups included YAR, Healthcare Matrix, Nativ Learning, The Tech Pit, Quami Coup, ABC Moms, Stickistan, Porter Pakistan, Mux Life and Baa-Dum-Tss.

Startups have become a growing trend in recent years in Pakistan and an event like this helps to encourage and empower those who aim to become entrepreneurs in the future. The president emphasized during the startup weekend on how it has become more difficult to shortlist candidates, which shows how the quality of the ideas is improving every year.