Five more incubation centres planned

Startups have raised $268m investment in first half of 2022

KARACHI:

Ignite National Technology Fund CEO Asim Shahryar Husain has announced that Ignite, administered by the Ministry of IT and Telecom, will launch five more incubation centres by next year and will also launch new acceleration and innovation funds to boost the startup and innovation ecosystem in Pakistan.

“Pakistani startups have raised $268 million in the first half of 2022 and by the end of the year the investment will cross half a billion dollars,” he revealed.

“The future looks very bright for Pakistani startups and the country is expected to have a couple of unicorns (billion-dollar startups) by 2025.”

He was speaking at the annual graduation ceremony hosted by the National Incubation Centre (NIC) Karachi at the NED University.

Thirty-nine new startups graduated from the NIC Karachi, taking the total number of startups that have graduated from Ignite’s NICs to 568.

“Investment in Pakistani startups grew five times to $373 million last year due to the congenial investment atmosphere provided to the young entrepreneurs through our National Incubation Centres programme,” said Federal IT and Telecom Secretary Mohsin Mushtaq while talking to the graduating batch.

He encouraged them to search for new customers and investors and contribute to the development of knowledge economy.

NIC Karachi Project Director Omar Abedin stressed the importance of celebrating entrepreneurship. “It’s more important now than ever before to credit and highlight the contribution of startups and their founders to the economy of Pakistan, through job creation, revenue generation, investment and fund-raising,” he said.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, June 18^th, 2022.

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