Velocity, Telenor’s digital accelerator, yesterday held a Graduation Night for the six startups from their second cohort. The event was attended by popular names from Pakistan’s startup industry. The main purpose of the event was to provide the startups an opportunity to pitch their products to investors, get invaluable feedback, and form possible strategic partnerships.
Speaking at the event Irfan Wahab, Telenor Pakistan CEO, stated:
“With programs like Velocity, we at Telenor Pakistan will continue our efforts to develop and nurture digital entrepreneurs in the country and make the best of our contributions to reinforce the digital ecosystem that we have built and promoted here.”
Event attendees included venture capitalists, angel investors, mentors, technology leaders and key players from the startup industry. Humayun Mazhar, CEO and Founder of CresVentures attended the event as the keynote speaker. Also present were Dr. Umar Saif, Chairman PITB; Nabeel Qadeer, Director PITB; Khurram Zafar, Founder 47 Ventures and Faisal Sherjan, Director LUMS Center for Entrepreneurship.
Startups for Telenor Velocity’s second cohort were selected in September 2016. These included Shopsy, which is Google for online shopping in Pakistan, Pakshine, developing devices that help people leverage solar power, Daastan, a self-publishing platform for Pakistani writers, Artsy, bridging the gap between Pakistani artists and buyers, Micropower Labs, developing electronic devices and gadgets and Perkup, offering Saas-based solutions for brands to manage and retain their customers.
Upon selection these startups went through a rigorous 6-month acceleration cycle where they were giving invaluable mentoring, access to online payment solutions and a chance to leverage Telenor’s 40 million subscriber base to scale their businesses.
Since its launch Velocity has accelerated 11 startups which have raised a cumulative $650,000 in funding. Applications are now open for their third cohort. Click here to apply!
Moving forward, Telenor Velocity has announced that it will be funding the startups in the upcoming batches of acceleration as well as a working space will be provided to all the startups at their head office in Islamabad. This funding and office space will be crucial in uplifting the startups from the ground.
