USAID to provide grants to startups pitching at Idea Croron Ka

USAID Small and Medium Enterprise Activity (SMEA) has yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding with Idea Croron Ka (ICK), a business reality show aired on a private television channel.

For those who don’t know about USAID SMEA project, it is a wing of USAID and is implementing business development support (BDS) activities designed to facilitate growth and enhance productivity in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). USAID SMEA has agreed to appear on the show and provide grant capital to the deserving entrepreneurs of Pakistan in 2 particular categories; ICT and Hospitality.

ICK is Pakistan’s premier startup reality show and has completed two seasons. The 3rd one is around the corner and expected to air starting from July. During the first two seasons, startups on ICK raised Rs. 22 crores, a total of 48 startups were given the chance to present their business ideas and 15 local and international investors became a part of the show making investments.

The MoU was inked by Nabeel A. Qadeer, Host, Lead and Content Producer and Farrukh Khan, Chief of Party at USAID SMEA, on Monday, 11th June, 2018. Speaking on this partnership, Nabeel said,

“Through this MoU, ICK will access grants that will incentivize the development and diffusion of innovative, scalable business ideas that will benefit both the entrepreneurial sector and startups.”

Whereas Farrukh said,

“The sort of opportunities we provide at USAID SMEA will provide ample opportunities to startups appearing on ICK to help them launch and scale their products/services.”