World’s largest virtual incubator to invest $100 million for PM’s startup programme

The world’s largest incubator called IdeaGist has announced an increase in its technology investment from $55 million to $100 million to support Prime Minister Imran Khan’s vision on entrepreneurship and innovation in emerging technologies. The incubator on Saturday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) along with Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) with an aim to support and promote the start-up programme initiated by PM Khan as  reported by Dawn.

The founder of IdeaGist Hassan Syed said in a statement that the additional $45 million investment will be allocated for incubating and boosting new ventures in emerging technologies. He even congratulated Imran Khan and the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) for successfully initiating Rs. 100 billion finance programme within months of its conception.

In order to boost self-employment opportunities in Pakistan, the State Bank of Pakistan on Saturday launched a subsidized financing programme worth Rs. 100bn for startups and small-to-medium companies.

Hassan Syed urged Imran Khan and Fawad Ch to think of creative ways for investment in emerging technology ventures in the country and promote a culture of innovation. He also stated, “it made a commercial sense to invest strategically in Pakistan’s innovation ecosystem”.

Meanwhile, IdeaGist is the world’s largest virtual incubator for startup ideas, currently supporting 2,000+ ideas from more than 300 communities from all over the world. The incubator has already initiated an accelerator and incubation programme in seven important emerging technologies which include, artificial intelligence, intelligent vehicles, blockchain, internet of things, 3D printing, smart robots, and augmented reality. Moreover, being the world’s largest digital incubator and the biggest supporter of the prime minister’s start-up venture, the incubator is going to develop around 590 incubators and accelerators across the country.

Although a cursory look on the internet doesn’t give much details on the incubation program and no information available on how the incubator claims to be world’s biggest. We haven’t come across any startup incubated or graduated for this program. This lack of information puts a huge question mark on the credibility of the incubator.

IdeaGist is also said to launch an “Empower Pakistan” project to provide online entrepreneurship training courses to the final year students of the PIDE. Both companies while signing the MoU said that they are welcoming towards the entrepreneurial culture and always promotes self-sustainable initiatives of students.