There really isn’t a lack of innovative ideas in Pakistan and the local startup ecosystem is striving to provide budding entrepreneurs the right kind of exposure to help materialize their ideas.
Just last week, Invest2Innovate, a leading Pakistani startup accelerator, conducted the 1776 Challenge Cup Local in The Hive, Islamabad on August 24th. 1776 is a Washington DC based startup incubator and seed fund with an aim to empower entrepreneurship ecosystems around the world. Their 1776 Challenge Cup is competition that takes place in 75 cities around the world. One startup is selected from each city to participate in the Global Finals.
i2i was 1776’s partner in Islamabad for the third year in a row. The main aim behind the event was to bring a “global competition for the world’s most promising startups tackling complex, regulated challenges to share their vision on a global stage, engage with industry leaders and win grand prizes.”
20 startups were shortlisted from across Pakistan to participate in the 1776 Challenge Cup Local Islamabad. In the first round all startups gave a 1-minute pitch to a panel of judges which included Blair Glencorse, Danielle Sharaf, Umer Adnan, and Kalsoom Lakhani. The top 10 startups from the first round then gave 3-minute pitches followed by a Q&A from the judges.
The top 3 were chosen based on the startups’ performance in the two rounds. Easy Insurance Pakistan, an online insurance aggregator that gives people a personalized insurance plan. They received access to the 1776 startup portal UNION.vc and will now get to participate in the 1776 Global Finals at Challenge Festival from November 13-17.
The runner-up was Repair Wala, which offer device repair service at your doorstep. Mad Hunt, a scavenger hunt game, received an honorary mention.
Last year’s winner of the 1776 Challenge Cup Local Islamabad Cowlar, a startup that makes fitbit for cows, excelled in the Global Finals as well. After that Cowlar got inducted in the prestigious YCombinator, one of the few Pakistani startups to achieve this feat.
