The demo was held on September 7 and included 10 startups from countries such as the UAE, India, Pakistan, Nigeria, and Singapore in fintech, GameFi, edtech, and blockchain among others.
Three Pakistani startups also participated in the demo day. Pakistani startups Linkstar, KalPay, and NearPeer participated in the demo day.
Linkstar:
Linkstar offers a vetted network of skilled freelance marketers and influencers with expertise at some of the finest companies, startups, and agencies, available on demand and on a budget.
Industry: IT Services and eCommerce
Stage: Pre-SeedStage
You can view the pitch deck of the startup here. To book time with Aizaz Nayyer the CEO and Co-founder click here.
Here is the Pitch by the Co-founder and CEO of Linkstar:
KalPay
We are Pakistan’s first Shariah Compliant Buy Now Pay Later company. We allow our customers to pay in 3 monthly installments with no paperwork or additional costs! Our mission is to play a vital role in financial inclusion in the country.
Industry: Fintech
Stage: Seed
You can view the pitch deck of the startup here. To book time with the CEO and Co-founder Shershah Hassan click here.
Here is the Pitch by the Co-founder and CEO of Kalpay here:
NearPeer:
Nearpeer aims to make quality education at all levels accessible and affordable throughout the MENAP region through technology so that students can have control of their learning and can fall in love with it – resulting in a reduced dropout rate, better learning outcomes, and better human capital for the region.
Industry: Edtech
Stage: Seed
You can view the pitch deck of the startup here. To book time with Ammar Ali the CEO and Co-founder click here.
Here is the Pitch by the Co-founder and CEO of NearPeer here:
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The event also included other startups from different countries you can view more startups here. The Pakistani startup ecosystem has been in a rough patch in the year 2022 as we saw some startup darlings of the ecosystem closing down.
However, Funding hasn’t slowed down in the ecosystem yet with Pakistani startups raising funds of $331 million as of 3rd quarter. A trend can be noticed after the closure of big names with the slowdown of funding in the ecosystem.
Industry experts predict that the future rounds will not be as glamorous as compared to the previous rounds that we saw where the ecosystem was elated by the inflow of startup funding news.
Lately, we can see a trend of smaller rounds coming into the ecosystem where accelators such as Sosv’s Orbit startups have been quite active in the ecosystem.
The average cheque size of Orbit startups is $150k, we have also seen Y Combinator being quite active in the ecosystem where the average cheque size is $500k. With the inflow of smaller rounds in the ecosystem, we can see a trend of trust in the ecosystem by accelerators who believe in the potential of Pakistan.
For Pakistan, the show must go on.
