Velocity, Telenor’s startup accelerator, is conducting its first ever Investor’s Summit in Islamabad tomorrow. Popular names from the IT and Startup Industry are expected to be in attendance. Fatima Ventures, Netsol, Abraaj Group, Pacific Internet Group, DotZero, TkXel, PakWheels, and Acumen are some of names invited to the event. However, it is not certain who will actually be attending. The main aim of the Investor’s Summit would be to expose Velocity’s first cohort of startups to interested investors which would help them scale their operations.
Read More: Meet Telenor Velocity’s First Cohort of Startups
Velocity initially rose as a glimmer at Open Islamabad’s Annual Forum 2015, where Irfan Wahab, CEO Telenor, announced that they would soon be venturing into the Pakistani startup industry. Two months after that, Telenor officially launched Velocity, their go-to-market accelerator for startups. It is directly aimed at facilitating startups that are ready to bring their product to the masses and focus on growth and expansion.
Startups selected at Velocity are exposed to Telenor’s large userbase, digital payment solutions, customer profiling, and a vast retail network. Access to these facilities paired with invaluable mentoring spanning a period of 6 months, positions these startups to thrive in a highly competitive market. In return, Velocity takes a 2.5% or higher equity in all startups that they induct.
Their first cohort of startups included EcoEnergy, Edjunction, doctHERs, Interacta, and Fori Mazdoori. This Investors Summit would primarily focus on exposing these startups to interested investors. However, an Investor’s Summit is usually conducted when there is larger group of startups or companies at hand. It is not known for sure whether the second Velocity cohort will also be initiated to investors at the event.
