ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication, Syed Aminul Haque has said that 272 start-ups have graduated from Ignite’s National Incubation Centre (NIC) with a total investment commitment of Rs8 billion and cumulative revenue of Rs3 billion, these nascent companies have created more than 100,000 new jobs in the last three and a half years.
This he stated while speaking as the chief guest on the occasion of “Accelerator Programme for Women Entrepreneurs” here in Islamabad on Monday.
According to this programme, the nine women entrepreneurs are set to leave for the USA on 10th of May 2022 for eight weeks. The programme was launched by The Indus Entrepreneurs, Islamabad office (TiE Islamabad) in partnership with the US Embassy for Women Entrepreneurs which not only provides growth stage start-ups with necessary tools, coaching and mentoring, but it also provides its women entrepreneurs with access to global investors and venture capitalists. The core programme revolves around networking, mentoring and investor engagements in leading US ecosystems such as San Francisco, Austin, Seattle, Boston, Washington DC, and New York.
The Federal Minister for IT and Telecom further said the MoITT and its Tech Innovation Arm Ignite had recently-launched Pakistan’s First National Investment Platform called PakImpactinvest. He said Covid-19 was a catalyst for the start-up landscape in Pakistan, which saw investments rise from $65 million in 2020 to $350 million in 2021. Extended lockdown and quarantines provided entrepreneurs the opportunity to create digital products with human impacts. Haque said the government had allowed holding shares for start-ups to be outside Pakistan, thus helping to push foreign investments.
He said the gender gap in start-up funding was quite prominent in the Pakistani ecosystem, when female-led start-ups do raise funding, they predominantly raise angel and grant money.
According to 2018-19 deal flow figures, of the funding raised by female-led companies, 63 percent was via angel investment and 25 percent was from development programs, (donors/grants).
One of the key challenges of new technology-based start-ups is access to early-stage and growth-stage capital.
“I am sure that; this initiative will bridge the gap in an efficient manner. Furthermore, there is a dire need to increase the overall funnel of women-led companies, whether by encouraging Incubators and accelerators to actively seek more female founders for their programs or providing more hands-on support to women-led companies at the early stages and improving their access to investors operating post-seed stage,” said the IT minister.
Haque apprised the TiE Islamabad to take the remarkable step and said the Programme like the Accelerator Programme for Women Entrepreneurs funded by the US State Department addresses this gap through its innovative design and experimental learning platform which will provide this group of women entrepreneurs with access to international incubators and foreign investors.
“I am particularly excited about the role the Pakistani diaspora in the US will play in supporting our women-led enterprises,” he added.
It’s worth mentioning here that TiE having its roots in Silicon Valley with an extensive network of partners in the US and Pakistan is ideally placed to provide the much needed international exposure and linkages to this group of women entrepreneurs.
On this occasion, the Minister Counselor for Public Affairs at the US Embassy, Raymond Castillo, said, “We at the US Embassy have been impressed by the commitment to excellence that all of the original 500 applicants showed throughout the virtual programme. These efforts will lead to a brighter future for Pakistan and the world. As the finalists here today, you should be extremely proud. Your persistence has paid off, and you will now represent Pakistan in the United States. You are the future women entrepreneurs of Pakistan.”
The Accelerator Programme for Women Entrepreneurs, a TiE training programme and competition for women entrepreneurs that is funded by the US Embassy Islamabad, is an innovative programme to connect women-owned Pakistani start-ups with American business tools, coaching and mentoring. The programme received an overwhelming response from 450 women-led businesses. Later, 75 short-listed start-ups went through a rigorous process of mentoring workshops and pitching competitions from which the top 12 start-ups were selected for a 15-week Founders Institute Acceleration Programme.
During the trip, the women entrepreneurs would be given an opportunity to attend major conferences and participate in exposure visits to Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook, Twitter and PayPal’s offices. Learning visits to local US-based incubators such as, 9 Mile Labs, Kiwi Tech, Angel Pad and Alchemist will also be carried out. The participants will be provided with multiple networking opportunities throughout the eight-week period and will be pitching to the selected US-based investors present in both the east and the west coast.
Launched in 2008, TiE Islamabad is a leading driver of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Pakistan.
TiE was founded in Silicon Valley by a group of successful entrepreneurs, corporate executives, and senior professionals and has since evolved into one of the largest global organizations with the express mission of fostering entrepreneurship. There are currently nearly 11,200 members, including over 2,860 charter members in 57 affiliate chapters across 14 countries.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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