Telenor Pakistan’s digital accelerator program, Telenor Velocity, has announced the startups for its much anticipated 7th cohort, this time in partnership with Telenor Microfinance Bank/Easypaisa.
The startups were welcomed onboard in a virtual orientation featuring keynote addresses by the company’s leadership, post a grueling selection process.
The cohort was formed considering the key areas where solutions are needed in the Pakistani context, including Fin-tech, Ed-tech, Agri-tech, Health-tech, and Inclusion. The 7 startups that have been selected for this year’s cohort are Up-trade, Good-Earth, Digi Khata, Foree, Ola Doc, Sehat Kahani, and DeafTawk.
Telenor Velocity’s 7th Cohort received 70+ applications from mature startup businesses, out of which 24 startups were short-listed for the interview rounds. After 4 days of vigorous startup interviews judged by a panel of internal experts from Telenor Pakistan & Telenor Microfinance Bank, 7 startups were chosen for this cohort.
Launched in 2016, the accelerator has to date conducted 6 cohorts, with 32 graduated startups, 4+ pilot runs, and a $40,000 pilot investment. Moreover, a $3 million investment has been raised, so far, by the program’s startups.
The Telenor Velocity program offers startups equity-free support for 4 months. Along with having access to Telenor Pakistan’s 48 million customers and My Telenor App’s 8 million users, the startups will also be supported in SMS marketing campaigns, receive coaching from domain experts, and have access to state-of-the-art data analytics/customer insights.
