Sabzi.pk is a startup founded by Farooq Haider, Aown Abbas and Muhammad Awais. It directly procures fruit and vegetables from farmers and helps provide fresh and high quality goods to consumers, both on a residential as well as commercial scale. It has been developing its client base in Lahore at present and plans to expand to other cities in the near future.

Apart from same day conveyance of new foods grown from the ground to buyer entryway steps, the organization has begun conveyances to lodgings and eateries in Lahore as well. With a steady push to expand obtainment direct from agriculturists, Sabzi.pk can convey the products to its clients at profoundly focused costs while guaranteeing the best quality and grade of the leafy foods.

On the other hand, Door Drop’s goal is to deliver a streamlined delivery solution to different segments where they are visioning to empower small scale businesses, specially women who are running different businesses and require a reliable instant logistic solution for their products. Door Drop is rigorously working to bring different vendors on board which are reflected with the signing ceremony of MOU with Sabzi.pk.

The MoU was signed between Farooq Haider, CEO of Sabzi.pk and Umair Shahid Founder/CEO of Door Drop along with Ghazanfar Iqbal.

The MoU will be part of a long-term program for both organizations and will help both achieve mutual benefits.

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Beauty salons online platform to connect women with beauty services and online booking is now easy by this new startup called BeautyHooked. It is founded by a talented female entrepreneur Sahr Said. She has secured a seed round from Fatima Ventures, a local seed-stage fund supported by Fatima Group. The seed fund amounts to $280,000. It is the first time ever achievement in Pakistan by a women-led startup.

Founded in 2015, BeautyHooked have seen ups and down since launch.  They are catering only in Lahore for now. The beautyHooked team is made up of Sahr Said who is the leader of the company, Sidra Talha, the head of operations and Abdullah Ahmed who has developed the entire technology of the company. After being winner at Startup Weekend Lahore, the startup was offered incubation at LUMS Center for Entrepreneurship.

Sahr got lot of help and inspiration from Startup Weekend Lahore held at LUMS Center for Entrepreneurship. LCE also give her some ideas to kickstart her idea with complete startup.  She thanked to LCE because she is what at this level today only because of LCE programs. Sahr Said as Founder and CEO of BeautyHooked said, “We had investment offers from multiple investors but we went with Fatima Ventures because their strategic goals aligned with ours.”

BeautyHooked being the first women-led startup to raise seed investment, Sahr commented that her vision is to empower women and while she did not have an example before her, she aims to be the morning star for others. BeautyHooked have plans to expand to other cities of Pakistan. They are expected to gain interest in Qatari-corporate business circle for expansion in the Middle East.

About BeautyHooked

BeautyHooked is an ecommerce platform that allows women to find, book and review beauty appointments at salons and spas. It acts as an aggregator between customers and beauty businesses, allowing them to search and book best beauty services 24/7.

The company was founded by Sahr Said in 2015 and was a part of the third cohort of The Foundation at LUMS Center for Entrepreneurship. You can know more about BeautyHooked from their website: beautyhooked.com and Facebook.

About LUMS Center for Entrepreneurship

LUMS Center for Entrepreneurship (LCE) is Pakistan’s most comprehensive experiential development platform for budding entrepreneurs that formalizes the process of scouting, grooming and facilitating passionate startup founders.

Gust and Fundacity recently rated LCE the #1 accelerator in Pakistan and #11 in Asia. Since its inception in May 2014, LCE has mentored over 130 entrepreneurs who have created over 400 direct jobs and provided better economic and livelihood opportunities for thousands more.

LCE graduates have already generated PKR 200 Million in revenues and are valued at PKR 1.5 Billion backed by approximately PKR 150 Million in investment capital by local and foreign investors. More about LCE at: lce.lums.edu.pk and Facebook and Twitter  

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LUMS Center for Entrepreneurship (LCE) in collaboration with Ilm Ideas 2 and Techstars, organized a themed Startup Weekend event at LUMS to scout and support innovators looking to address the enrollment, retention and learning outcome challenges in the education sector of Pakistan.

The event started on Friday evening, August 5, with Dr. Zartash Afzal Uzmi, LUMS faculty member and facilitator for Startup Weekend Lahore, commencing the proceedings and opening remarks presented by Shahida Saleem, Team Lead Pakistan Education Innovation Fund (Ilm Ideas 2). From among the 130 participants of the Start Weekend, a total of 63 startups made their elevator pitches to the audience on Friday evening. 19 startups were shortlisted to continue with the competition and mentoring support for the rest of the weekend.

Participants worked tirelessly throughout the weekend including the nights with a passion that was palpable. Through Saturday until Sunday evening, successful business people and educators came in to mentor and coach the startups and help them polish their business models, financials and even presentations. The hard work of all the teams culminated on Sunday, August 7, where all the 19 shortlisted teams pitched in front of a panel of judges comprising of Khurram Zafar, Abid Malik, Faisal Bari, Izza Farrukh, Shahida Saleem, Imran Sarwar and Gauher Aftab.

Ilmistan, an online platform for teachers training won the competition. Keep Schools Safe, a startup focused on imparting disaster preparedness training to schools, came in second. According to the founders, there are hundreds of thousands of kids whose education suffer because of disruptions caused by natural disasters and people-caused incidents in Pakistan. Edu Care, a startup formed by students of Namal University that aims to build an online networking platform to connect students in any part of the country with volunteer tutors and coaches, came in third. The founders of Educare dedicated the win to the generous donors of Namal University that enabled them to seek good education and gave them the confidence to start their own ambitious venture. The Audience Favorite vote went out to SS Gamification, a team who is working on gamifying social sciences subjects in schools.

Addressing the participants of the Startup Weekend, Shahida Saleem of Ilm Ideas 2 said, “You all blew me away! Your energy, your passion and your commitment is infectious and I believe that a lot of social enterprises we saw develop over the weekend will play a pivotal role in providing 25 million out of school children access to good education.”

The winning team and the top two runners up are offered guaranteed incubation at LUMS Center for Entrepreneurship while all other participants were encouraged to apply for incubation for the 6^th batch of LCE through the online application process.

About Startup Weekend Lahore:

Startup Weekend Lahore is the Lahore chapter of the global Startup Weekend event held at LUMS every year. The event is backed by Google for Entrepreneurs, .CO and TechStars and is a 54-hour event that brings together enthusiastic and driven budding entrepreneurs who are learning the basics of founding startups leading to the path of launching successful ventures.

About LUMS Center for Entrepreneurship:

LUMS Center for Entrepreneurship (LCE) is Pakistan’s most comprehensive experiential development platform for budding entrepreneurs that formalizes the process of scouting, grooming and facilitating passionate startup founders. Gust and Fundacity recently rated LCE the #1 accelerator in Pakistan and #11 in Asia. Since its inception in May 2014, LCE has mentored over 130 entrepreneurs who have created over 400 direct jobs and provided better economic and livelihood opportunities for thousands more. LCE graduates have already generated PKR 200 Million in revenues and are valued at PKR 1.5 Billion backed by approximately PKR 150 Million in investment capital by local and foreign investors. More about LCE at: lce.lums.edu.pk and Facebook and Twitter

About Ilm Ideas 2:

Ilm Ideas 2, supported by the UK Department for International Development (DFID), provides a platform for the generation, piloting and scaling up of innovative solutions to address critical education challenges in Pakistan. Phase 2 of the program, launched in 2015, is managed by Cambridge Education, a member of the Mott MacDonald group. More about Ilm Ideas 2 at: ilmideas2.pk and Facebook and Twitter

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Vegetables Delivery Startup Sabzi.pk Team.

Online fruits and vegetables delivery startup Sabzi.pk is founded by a young and energetic entrepreneurs from Ali Pur Chattha near Gujranwala city.

Sabzi.pk is currently accelerated by LUMS Center for Entrepreneurship (LCE). And recently LCE has announced that sabzi.pk has closed its seed financing from the owners of a large local retail conglomerate. The deal was finalized at USD 7.5 Million which is highest value carry by LCE for seed round funding.

Sabzi has been growing primarily in Lahore for now. They are not only delivering fresh fruits and vegetables to customers at doorsteps, also they have started deliveries to restaurants and hotels in Lahore. Sabzi.pk is giving very competitive prices to customers with high quality fruits and vegetables.

The CEO of Sabzi.pk Farooq  Haider  said,

“ We got multiple offers for the six figures seed capital investment we were seeking, but we decided to go with investors. The Capital will primarily be used to build HR capacity, and to streamline our supply chain.  Also we will put money on customer relationship officers and brand marketing.

Sabzi.pk is planning to expand their operations to other largest cities of Pakistan. “My goal is to turn Sabzi.pk into a national brand and to better farmer’s lives and livelihoods, Farooq said further.

“Farooq’s passion for his startup, professional attitude and work ethics in Sabzi.pk’s team, sustained drive to make the business better and buildup happy customers are all key ingredients for business success. I am happy that Pakistani investors are beginning to give importance to our new startups. Farooq has made us all proud and we wish his venture great success,” said Khurram Zafar, Executive Director of LUMS Center for Entrepreneurship. He was commenting to the deal.

About Sabzi.pk

Sabzi.pk is a startup accelerated by LUMS Center for Entrepreneurship that provides an online and phone based fruits and vegetables delivery service for household consumers and corporate customers in the hotels, restaurants and catering companies.

About LUMS Center for Entrepreneurship

LUMS Center for Entrepreneurship (LCE) is Pakistan’s most comprehensive experiential development platform for budding entrepreneurs that formalizes the process of scouting, grooming and facilitating passionate startup founders.

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