Greener pastures: Pakistani entrepreneur teams up with US giant

SoloMetrics, Mace Security join hands to form SoloMace.

KARACHI:

In what can be an inspiration for Pakistani entrepreneurs, a former winner of the annual business contest of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Enterprise Forum Pakistan (MITEFP) shared with The Express Tribune how his company benefited from the exposure he got through this platform.

“MITEFP- Business Acceleration Program (BAP) significantly helped us by mentoring and advising us, making us presentable and acceptable for any United States (US)-based corporation to even look at us,” said Farhan Masood, founder of SoloMetrics, a research-based electronics engineering and IT company out of Chicago with roots in Pakistan.

SoloMetrics recently signed a joint venture with Mace Security International, an American company that manufactures personal defence, safety and security products including their renowned range of pepper sprays. The joint venture has been named as SoloMace.



“We feel excited about our joint venture with Mace as they are the household brand for defence and security in the US,” Masood said in an email to this correspondent. “They have a wide network of over 550 distributors across the US that will not only make our sales process cost efficient but also increase product reach.”

Masood had won MITEF – BAP last year for his innovative product SmartXS. The 36-year-old inventor from Lahore claimed that his product has the world’s fastest retina and face scanner algorithm.

MITEFP-BAP is a highly competitive annual event with an objective to help Pakistani IT, Information Technology Essential Standards, telecom and new media companies improve their business.

The winners get a chance to attend an entrepreneurship development programme (EDP) at MIT in Cambridge, US. The EDP is intensive training program through which Pakistani entrepreneurs meet venture capitalists, angel investors and serial entrepreneurs in the US.

According to Pakistan Software Export Board’s website, some of the companies that participated in this programme saw their revenues grow by five to 10 times and valuation increase by 15 times. For example, Sofizar’s revenue increased from less than $1 million to $30 million in two-and-a-half years.



“MIT brought us to the US and we met the Mace team through our partners and advisors in the US and it clicked,” Masood said. “We have significantly benefited from the programme and we encourage all Pakistani start-ups and growing companies to participate in it.”

When he won the aforesaid contest, Masood was heading Lahore-based SoloSmart as its CEO, with SoloMetrics was then one of its subsidiaries in the US. At the time Masood was planning to transform all its subsidiaries into one entity – SoloMetrics.

Through his innovative products, Masood has already served clients like National Database and Registration Authority, the Pakistan Army and multinational companies including Pepsico, Nestle and Tetra Pak. This joint venture, according to him, will help him focus on expanding the customer base in the US. “We are expecting to start our sales process in the US by the first quarter of 2014,” he said.

SoloMace works on personal defence technologies that are less lethal but more effective and technologically advanced, Masood said, responding to a question about their upcoming products. “We will be bringing safety and traceability features to the previous line of defence products that are already being offered,” he said. “There is a lot of new development happening and we are in process of filing patents around that,” he added.

While the main target market seems to be the US, Masood said their products have wide applications for Pakistan as well.

Giving an example of their upcoming consumer product, Masood said their range of self-defence pepper spray products embedded with GPS and biometric triggers would make a common Pakistani – especially women – feel much safer.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 2^nd, 2014.

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