Update – A previous version of the story mentioned one wrong name as the selected startup. The name has been changed to reflect the correct information.
Mobilink hosted a Make Your Mark(MYM) Entrepreneurial Connect Day featuring incubated start-ups from LUMS Center for Entrepreneurship (LCE) and Social Innovation Lab (SIL) with the aim to commission successful and scalable business partnerships with successful start-Ups.
The MYM Entrepreneurial Connect Day, in line with its Group-wide Make Your Mark Initiative, is based on Mobilink’s commitment to providing commercial opportunities to young people to bring their ideas to life as new businesses so they can help themselves, their communities and the broader economy.
The 11 participating start-ups were previously mentored by Mobilink representatives at LCE with the intention of helping them enhance their entrepreneurial advantage.
The judges for the evening were Head of Departments of Mobilink’s various business functions, who utilized their business acumen to assist the Telco in choosing the winning start-up and commission a successful and scalable business partnership. They included: Omar Manzur – Head of Corporate Communications, Maaz Zahid Qureshi – Head of Digital, Asghar Jameel – Chief Human Resource Officer, Syed Babur – Head of Value Added Services, Muhammad Ali Khan – Head of Data, Faisal Ejaz Khan – Regional Business Head Central and Syed Jafar Abbas – Senior Manager Mobile Financial Services.
Divided in to two stages – ‘Elevator Pitches’ and ‘Deep Dive for New Digital Ventures’- the MYM Entrepreneurial Connect Day saw judges score and assess participating start-ups for their business foresight and experience, time to market and potential for growth. The start-up teams also got a chance to further understand the prospective digital businesses and explore potential commercial linkages with respective departments of Mobilink.
Upon completion of the two stages, the judges shortlisted five start-ups – Paper.pk, Shahi Sawari, Treble, Rizq, and ChaiChalk. These shortlisted start-ups held preliminary discussions about the commercial arrangements, way forward and mutual expectations of the business partnership with Mobilink were held.
Speaking on the occasion, Omar Manzur stated, “A significant purpose of Mobilink’s Make Your Mark initiative is to generate a platform to ‘Help Young People Shape Their Future’. For this very reason, we decided to go beyond just assisting business incubators, by providing commercial opportunities to these young people so they give a shape to their innovative ideas in search of solutions to needs & challenges of society and the broader economy.”
“We are passionate about innovation and technology in Pakistan and are committed to helping young people achieve success. It is encouraging to see the start-up ecosystem growing in the digital space in Pakistan. We see a lot of potential as these young entrepreneurs tackle everyday challenges in innovative ways. Through supporting business incubators and providing commercial support to viable Start-ups, we are offering the country’s brightest youngsters unparalleled access to Mobilink’s expertise,” added Maaz Zahid.
Mobilink’s management will be further evaluating each of the shortlisted startup’s business case and will be announcing any formal affiliations in the near future.
