Daily Times

2021 has been a remarkable year for Pakistani startups as far as investments are concerned. In whole of 2020, Pakistani startups had received investment of $77 million whereas in just 8 months of 2021, investments in Pakistani startups have crossed $228 million according to Ignite. That is a growth of almost 3 times over 2020 with another 4 months still to go. If the momentum continues like this for the next couple of years, annual investments in Pakistani startups can reach billion dollars by 2025.

According to CEO Ignite, Asim Shahryar Husain, “Over the last five years or more, government, academia, and industry have launched many incubators which have produced more than a thousand startups in different verticals. Many of these startups are generating revenue and are ready for acceleration. When you have leading VCs like Kleiner Perkins and 20VC investing in Pakistani startups, then it means that you are getting ready for the global stage. Pakistani startups are the next big thing and many are ready for acceleration and lift off now.”

Ignite is planning both horizontal and vertical expansion of its flagship National Incubation Centers (NICs) in future. Presently, Ignite has launched NICs in Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar, and Quetta. In future, Ignite will be launching new incubators in Faisalabad, Hyderabad, Multan and other cities of Pakistan. Also, Ignite will launch specialized incubators in verticals such as gaming & animation, aerospace, healthtech, etc. for incubation of startups in these areas.

Sectors which are attracting investment include ecommerce, transport/logistics, fintech, healthech, retailtech, and edtech. So far, 37 Pakistani startups have raised funding of $228 million this year. Five of them have raised more than $10 million dollars each.