Smart Farm, an agri-tech startup conquers Startup Weekend Lahore 2019

After 2 days of intensive working and strenuous efforts, Smart Farm, an Agritech startup has came out on top at Startup Weekend Lahore.

About Startup Weekend

Startup Weekend Lahore is a 54-hour weekend event, during which groups of developers, designers, managers, startup enthusiasts, marketing gurus, graphic artists etc pitch ideas for new startup companies, form teams around those ideas, and work to develop a working prototype, demo, or presentation by the end of the event. In Partnership with Google for Startups, Techstars Startup Weekend is a competition that takes place on an international scale and has reached a total of 140+ countries.

The Lahore edition took place at the National Incubation Center Lahore at the Lahore University of Management Sciences from 8th-10th March 2019.

The Initial Pitches and Shortlisting

Customary in all Startup Weekends, the initial pitches were followed by a vote. This time, 8 startups were shortlisted to continue to work over the weekend.

The Weekend Extravaganza

These ideas founders then collaborated with other participants and make a team (of individuals having different skillsets), which is primarily aimed at cementing the feasibility of these ideas.

Expert Guidance From Industry Specific Coaches

The teams got a chance to interact with a star-studded range of coaches that visited the event throughout the weekend. The coaches were industrial veterans who were at the top of their respective fields. They voluntarily guide these teams to ensure their idea receives the guidance they require.

The shortlisted ideas work through the night to fine-tune their ideas and pitches; based on the feedback and mentorship they’ve received, following a final set of pitches to the judging panel.

The Judging Panel

This year, the judging panel included the likes of Badar Khushnood (Co-founder and VP of Growth at Bramerz), Hussain Nasir (CEO- Rolustech), Kaleem Ullah (Manager Community- NIC Lahore), Kynat Raza (Managing Director- Lives Cooking Oil), Murad Akhrar (CEO-Tintash), Neelam Irshad (Director-Asmar Textiles), Toseehba Sarwar (Founder- Image Management Outfit).

The Winners and Runner Ups

Winners that were announced on late Sunday evening included:

• Smart Farm; which is focused on building compact smart greenhouses for food production that can be controlled by an application
• The First Runner Up was Vampwelt; which primarily dealt in selling handmade leather shoes through e-commerce stores.
• The Second Runner Up was Translators; an online platform to handle foreign language barriers.
• The winner and runner ups have been fast-tracked to NIC Lahore, freeing them of the stress of the actual procedure of applying to the NIC.
• The Audience Favourite was Dasc Startup; an application used to scrutinize and compare educational institutions.

We would like to congratulate the winners and the runner ups and wish them the best of luck in their future endeavours!

With this, TechJuice signs off as the Official Media Partners of Startup Weekend Lahore 2019