LAHORE: The Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB)’s Entrepreneurial Wing Plan established five years back has business success ratio of 60 percent, attracting startups valued at $70 million, which is changing the economy of Pakistan through the expansion of eco-system.
PITB Chairman Dr Umar Saif addressed the mega event for startups and entrepreneurs titled, XPosition9 held on Saturday. Over 100 startups and established tech companies show-cased their products through their stalls.
He said that the companies like Careem, Infinity, Solars, Networks, IoT Company, Keep Talking, Patari, Mango Baaz, Wifi Gem, Markhor etc; managed by Pakistani citizens have significantly contributed to the Pakistani ecosystem. Pakistan has the capacity and potential to improve exports up to 150 percent, he added.
He further stated that with $4 million annual revenues during five years Plan9, Pakistan’s first mega incubator, has elective worth $70 million and in addition created 1,200 jobs by through 160 startups, which were contributing towards sustainable economic growth.
XPosition9 powered by Telenor Velocity followed by a note by P@sha Chairman Barkan Saeed. He discussed the problems that Pakistani startups face and areas they should not be over-looking. Telenor Pakistan IoT Head Waqar Nayyar talked about the increasing limelight and opportunity sets for the hardware companies in Pakistan.
The first panel discussion focused the future of IoT in Pakistan. The panel included Linked Things Founder & Chief Executive Officer Sofia Hasnain, Wattie Co-Founder Faizan Ijaz Car Chabi CEO & Founder Ali Rashid and DIY Geeks Founder Usama Abid moderated by Ehtesham Rao. The panel talk discussed the problems and opportunities working in the hardware space and what investors look for.
Running parallel to the demo, was Pakistan’s first ever IoT based Hackathon by Telenor Velocity. Twenty hardware companies were selected to participate and the mentoring and pitching of the Hackathon spread over two days culminated at XPosition9. The winning team received Rs 125,000 from Telenor Pakistan, Rs 50,000 for the runner up and Rs 25,000 for the team that came in third.
Published in Daily Times, May 6th 2018.