LUMS Startup Weekend Lahore remained in news for weeks. Even after it has concluded, it still remains topic of interest for many.

The Startup weekend is believed to be one of the most famous and largest festivals for entrepreneurs.
The event was brought to you by the partnership of Karandaaz Pakistan and LUMS.

The competition was won by ‘Paycard‘, a NFC payment solution.

Paycard idea was to to improve the existing payment solutions by using an NFC-enabled prepaid card which can be charged up to 5000-PKR at a time through the easy load. Retailers and sellers can enable a simple swipe-based payment method through Paycard merchant for customers. Customer must have Paycard to complete transaction.

Karandaaz aims to create a developed Pakistan. It aims financial and digital development in Pakistan. It believes that it is only possible when the people related to these fields interact with each other to widen their perspective and produce amazing work. The startup weekend was part of its aim; the event brought together people including entrepreneurs and mentors.

For the 8tth time LUMS has held the startup weekend. Entrepreneurs from all across the Pakistan made it to the event to contribute their efforts towards the development.

On the first day 60 entrepreneurs shared their idea and only 11 best ideas were selected for the final round.
To prepare, collect material and arrange it the participants were given 70 hours.

When the teams were ready with their presentations they were given just five minutes to open up their idea, answer the jury and conclude. These 5 minutes were enough to decide the winner of the Startup Weekend.

The news of the Startup Weekend Lahore winner was announced in a press release. The press release also stated that NFC payment solution, ‘Paycard’ won the competition as their idea was unique and beneficial.

On the second rank was ‘Groupie’, a way to merge individual pictures of friends into one large group photo. The third place was acquired by ‘Home Grown’ that promoted horticulture.

The seven other of the eleven shortlisted startup ideas included:

1) Freshalla – the fruit delivery website and app,
2) Pakfit – a platform that connects professionals with individuals looking to get in shape,
3) Pak Builds – a digital marketplace for material services providers and contractors,
4) Health Monitoring System – a wearable health monitoring and notification device,
5) Kabara Online – a digital marketplace to sell goods a person doesn’t need any more,
6) Animatica Math – a personalized animation app to encourage kids’ interest in mathematics,
7) Dream X – an Urdu digital assistant which can interpret and run commands given to it in Urdu language.

Honorary mention:

When the awards were announced in Startup Weekend Lahore  the ‘Proximate’ that aims to provide users with relevant ads when they pass near a proximate beacon installed on any retail outlet, received an honorary mention.

Ali Sarfaraz Hussain the CEO Karandaaz Pakistan said,

“We feel privileged to be part of LUMS Startup Weekend Lahore to inspire youth into pursuing entrepreneurship in their professional careers. Finding and nurturing fresher ideas through proper training and guidance will go on to reinforce and add value to Pakistan’s startup landscape.

The advancement in digital technology has helped a lot of promising digital startups to surface in the country which will go on to morph into small and medium businesses in the near future. Karandaaz Pakistan is committed to facilitating SMEs by promoting access to finance by employing technology-enabled digital solutions. We look forward to helping accelerate promising startups in order to enable them to contribute to the country’s economy.”

Samar Hassan the Head of Communications at Karandaaz took the stage to say,

“The cross-cutting themes at Karandaaz are innovation, youth, and women entrepreneurship. At Karandaaz we strongly believe that you guys (youth) are the future.”

He further added,

“You are the driving force of the nation. If you go places, we need to be behind you to support you, to uplift you, and I am sure you will go places regardless of whether we are there to support you or not. But we are here to reiterate that commitment to you.”

Samar Hasan, Head of Communications at Karandaaz Pakistan said,

“The cross-cutting themes at Karandaaz are innovation, youth, and women entrepreneurship. At Karandaaz we strongly believe that you guys (youth) are the future,” said Samar Hasan, Head of Communications at Karandaaz Pakistan. “You are the driving force of the nation. If you go places, we need to be behind you to support you, to uplift you, and I am sure you will go places regardless of whether we are there to support you or not. But we are here to reiterate that commitment to you.”

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A two day conference laden with the finest Investors, entrepreneurs, mentors, speakers, tech companies, accelerators alongside the involvement of Media would be held on 26th and 27th of January at Arfa Software Technology Park, Lahore under the name “Startup Lahore”! There would be over 3000 attendees, 150+ startups, and 30+ investors.

The event is being held in collaboration with MIT Enterprise Forum Pakistan (MITEFP) -a global organization of dedicated professionals associated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) through MIT Technology Review is one of the 24 worldwide chapters looking to engage stakeholders of the entrepreneurial ecosystem and make a difference through innovation and technology.

The Conference would provide the Startups an access to Foreign as well as Domestic Investors and some training of how to convert “yet another Business” into one of the Best of the states. A piece of advice is what the Upcoming Entrepreneurs will surely attain. For the country it is an initiative to train the next generation and stimulate Entrepreneurship amongst the Youth!

Startup Rumble

One of the key features of Startup Lahore would be the Startup Rumble. It’s a platform that will make it viable for the Entrepreneurs to submit a business idea of no more than 350 words! All the ideas would be a subject to vote.

The Finalist would be chosen on the basis of votes and would invited to Lahore to present their ideas as well as a detailed business plan in front of a jury and a large audience. The top teams will then be selected for the prize money.

The winners of Startup Rumble will also be given the opportunity to be accelerated at the PlanX accelerator.
The Plan would also enable People to interact with one another and comment on various ideas! This would enable entrepreneurs to mold their idea to suit as much a people as possible.

Dr. Umar Saif, Chairman of PITB and Vice Chancellor of ITU, said while talking about the event:

“In the last decade, Lahore has transformed itself into a technology hub. With our startup and investor eco-system building up steam, Startup Lahore has come about at an opportune time. This will be a fantastic opportunity for all entities to network and showcase our talented community.”

Apply Now

Attendee, Startup or Investor passes are available on Startup Lahore website. These pass holders will have access to workshops and seminars during the whole event.

Applications are open for Startup Rumble. Everyone who is interested to participate can apply here.

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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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