5 Pakistanis make it to semi-finals of entrepreneurship competition GIST

A total of 5 exceptional entrepreneurs from Pakistan have made it to the public-voting semi-final round of global entrepreneurship and innovation competition, GIST.

Global Innovation through Science and Technology (GIST) is an initiative by the US State Department to empower young innovators through networking, skills-building, mentoring, and access to financing to develop startup, available in 135 emerging economies worldwide. The GIST Tech-I, a part of GIST, is an annual competition that attracts entrepreneurs from all around the world and this year too, the competition received a record 1,075 applications from 104 countries.

Their semi-final round has now kicked off with just 102 selected individuals from 51 countries and five Pakistani ideas/starups have made it to the list. The competition is further divided into two phases; Startup Phase, for existing startups, and Idea Phase, for entrepreneurs looking to bring their startup ideas to life.

WonderTree, Waqas Muhammad
Type: Startup
An e-learning startup, WonderTree offers an interactive e-learning platform for special children to enable them to educate and train themselves in a better way, providing them academic as well as functional education.

LapBOX, Syed Yasir Hassan
Type: Idea
A health-focused startup, LapBOX aims to modernize the process of surgery in Pakistan using a new technique called “Laparoscopic surgery”. Also known as minimally invasive surgery (MIS) or keyhole surgery, the process is a new technique that allows for cameras or small tools to be inserted via small incision instead of large cuts. The startup also made it to Shell LiveWire Top 10 innovator nominations last year.

Naya Jeevan, Zeeshan Yousuf
Type: Startup
Naya Jeevan provides low-income communities associated with corporate value chains (suppliers, retailers, micro-retailers and informal, domestic workers of corporate managers) with cashless, digital access to a nationwide health plan for the marginalized.

Carespare tool, Saima Hanif
Type: Idea
The Carespare tool is a novel diagnosis test tool for Hepatitis c, a chronic liver disease, providing 300 percent less expensive and more accurate test results. It is reusable and time efficient.

Cowlar, Umer Adnan
Type: Idea
A smart collar for cows, Cowlar is basically a wearable device that is designed to help farmers improve herd health, optimize dairy operations and boost milk yield. The device also monitors temperature and observes dairy animal behavior. Umer’s mission is to provide this solution to farmers at a disruptive and affordable price to revolutionize the global dairy landscape.

The semi-finals round consists of a 90-second pitch video which is then put to a global online vote to help determine the finalists. After voting ends on the 1st of May, 30 finalists will be selected to pitch at the 2016 Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES 2016), June 23-24 in Silicon Valley, CA.

The startups need your vote and here is how you can do it.

How Can I Vote?

1. Go to GIST Tech-I page and Sign-up.
2. Create a profile and then go to the same link again.
3. Search for the startup you want to vote for.
4. Click on Vote. Note that you can also vote for multiple startups simultaneously.

Note: You can vote again after every 24-hours so if you want a startup to win, you can log in every day and hit that “Vote” button.