OPINION
Taimoor Hassan
Celebrating Pakistani tech story the right way
country’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. Wednesday’s conference was the inaugural virtual event by PakLaunch to showcase Pakistani startups to the global community, with a particular focus on international investors to reinforce their confidence in Pakistan. The conference was titled “Why Pakistani startups are the next big thing”. The conference included a welcome note by the president, panel discussions, investors who have presented in Pakistan and their experience with Pakistani startups, and heads of Ministry of Science and Technology, the State Bank, the Pakistan Stock Exchange and Special Technology Zones Authority. It was encouraging to hear from international investors who had invested in Pakistan, reposing their trust in Pakistani tech founders and teams, and how tech Pakistan had grown f you have recently attended PakLaunch’s inaugural conferbetter than how it had grown in other emerging markets like ence on startups online and were amazed by the potential Indonesia during the similar time period. It was also encourPakistan’s startups hold, I can tell you with certainty that aging to hear government officials the event looked ‘rigged’ to make few names from Pakistani But while the conference had encouraging remarks from startups shine above others and one investor in particular these investors and the government office bearers sharing the made look bigger. initiatives they were taking to support startups, there was Because there was so much amiss, which I discuss below, much amiss which could have added more value to the subject the event failed to live up to many people’s expectations. I attendmatter of the conference and could have showcased the Pakied Nest I/O’s 021Disrupt last year and it did a phenomenal job in stani tech scene better globally. highlighting Pakistan’s tech scene from various angles, was more The agenda of the conference primarily highlighted inclusive and, therefore, gives a standard to compare with and call one particular investor and its portfolio companies. Most of out when and where it goes below. the investors that were invited to present their experience of This year, PakLaunch, which is an online community of investing in Pakistan had invested in one of the two startups successful Pakistani entrepreneurs, tried doing the same. These Indus Valley Capital had invested in. entrepreneurs have the noble intentions of now wanting to give it Some high-profile investors that spoke during the conback to Pakistan and they are doing it by helping to strengthen the ference were Shorooq Partners which has invested in Airlift, Antler which has invested in Bazaar, Fatima Gobi has invested in Airlift, Next Billion Ventures has invested in Bazaar, Quiet Capital has invested in Airlift, Wavemakers partners has invested in Bazaar, Harry Stebbings has invested in Airlift, and Acrew Capital has also invested in Bazaar. While some of these investors have also invested in companies which are competitors to Indus Valley portfolio companies, their founders Taimoor Hassan were nowhere to be seen during the conference. covers technology and And as I came to know from one company that I was able to speak with, they did startups for Profit. He can be not even receive any invite for the PakLaunch conference, while members from Bazaar and Airlift, and another portfolio company of the same investor, Aimfit, were part of a panel reached at taimoor.hassan@ discussion. pakistantoday.com.pk Then the agenda of the conference floated before the actual conference date was reshuffled, perhaps by design. As I have come to know, the event was pre-recorded and the
An interesting concept, PakLaunch’s conference of entrepreneurs left a lot else to be desired
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