Grand Finale selects 11 new startups at Plan9 Launchpad

Lahore: Chairman Punjab Information Technology Board Dr. Umar Saif has said that budget would be increased to establish more startup incubators in the country.

He was addressing the closing ceremony of 6^th three-day Launchpad of Plan9 at Arfa Software Technology Park here.

The renowned entrepreneur Siim Teller of Wire- a communication application for electronic Devices and Managing Director of Alvarez and Marsal of Quidco arrived from UK to join the mega event as international judges.

The local panelists consisted of well-known Pakistani entrepreneurs Saleem Rehman, Sajjad Kirmani, Qaiser Ansari, Ms. Jehan Ara, Zafar Khan and Naeem Zamindar. The final day pitched seven minutes presentation and three minutes question-answers session to compete from amongst more than 1000 candidates.

On the last day, 11 teams were selected at Lahore named as Cube Exchange, Optimaken, Payload, Edutative, Voosh.io, Smart Devices, Squarrre, RabbitDrop, Virtual Dressing Room, WebAdmin and Home Foodies.

The Telenor, Pasha, Techjuice, Savaree, ITU, Microsoft and CityFM89 were among the main partners who supported the colorful event. Congratulating the winners, Dr. Umar Saif said that the process of selecting new startups was quite transparent as no judge belonged to host organizations. He said that the new selectees were going to be a part of the largest and the ever first startup incubator of Pakistan.

“Launched in August 2012, Plan9 aims at facilitating technological entrepreneurship in the country by providing a nurturing ecosystem for the sustainable growth of product based early stage startups. It inducts teams bi-annually, making each incubation cycle of 6 months. Services such as free office space, legal advisory, marketing and monthly stipends are funded by the Government of the Punjab through PITB. It has incubated more than 66 companies that are winning global repute.

Plan9 is attracting a number of local & international partners. We are proud on introducing the startup culture in domestic entrepreneurship that has gone a long way to make new tech incubators in large universities and institutes of Pakistan such as NUST, FAST, Karachi University, Bahria University, Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute etc.” he added.

Dr. Saif said that the sustainable development of a country always owed to the skillful use of modern technology as it had played a vital role in the economy, trade and development of Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Turkey, Singapore and China. He said that PITB’s Plan9, PlanX and TechHUb are the technology based programs that train and supports new entrepreneurs creating broad opportunities for employment and foreign investment in Pakistan. He paid a special vote of thanks to the panel of judges for sparing time and selecting the new startups on merit.

Siim Teller, expressing his views said that he was highly inspired by the way the Launchpad enabled the prospective startups to express their potential and prove themselves in open discussions before such a large number of fascinated audience and impartial judges.

The famous USA blog writer, Robert Scoble shared the event through Skype and lauded the efforts of PITB to present such a world class platform to new startups in a terrorism torn country like Pakistan. He assured that such programs would help end extremism and nurture positive and constructive entrepreneur culture among Pakistani youth.