Pakistani startup RLabs has won the GOAL Startup Award at the Silicon Valley November Summit in California. The company, led by NUST graduate Harris Ahmed, beat out competition from 17 other international startups to take the prize. Plug and Play, the global innovation platform and venture capital firm, organized the summit from November 2 to 5. More than 3,000 people attended, including founders, investors, corporate executives, and government representatives.
RLabs pitched its work on extended reality simulators, synthetic data, and machine training.
Understanding what the company does requires connecting those three concepts. XR simulators create interactive virtual environments where people train on complex machinery. Synthetic data refers to artificially generated information used to train AI models without needing expensive real-world datasets. Machine training combines both, using simulated environments to teach AI systems how to operate in physical spaces. Together, they form a pipeline: the simulator generates scenes, the scenes produce labeled data, and that data trains intelligent systems.
Ahmed graduated from the National University of Sciences and Technology in 2018. He has spent the past decade developing ways to train people to operate complex machinery through extended reality. According to Minute Mirror, he explained that RLabs now applies the same expertise to training machines rather than just humans. The company prepared for its Silicon Valley pitch at the National Incubation Centre for Aerospace Technologies, where it originally incubated.
That aerospace incubation background matters. Flight and maintenance training have relied on simulation for decades. RLabs essentially takes those principles and extends them to broader industrial applications using modern AI and XR technology.
According to NICAT, RLabs is also developing a proprietary large language model. This LLM will power a modular, cross-platform simulation engine. NICAT claims the engine can reduce development time by 75%, though independent verification of that figure is not yet available.
The GOAL programme itself stands for Global Overseas Acceleration and Learning. Plug and Play runs it specifically to bring startups from outside the US into its Silicon Valley network. RLabs earned one of just 18 spots in the programme this cycle. For context, TechJuice previously reported that four NIC Lahore startups entered the same GOAL programme in 2025, marking the first time any Pakistani incubator placed founders in Plug and Play’s Silicon Valley network.
Following the win, Ahmed announced plans to launch RLabs in the United States. However, no details about US operations, funding, customers, or product pricing have surfaced yet. The award provides a credential and visibility, but translating that into commercial traction remains the next challenge.
Pakistan’s government moved quickly to claim the moment. IT Minister Shaza Fatima Khawaja called the award “a proud moment” and said it reflected the potential of Pakistani tech talent. She said:
“Congratulations to Harris Ahmed and the entire RLabs team for making Pakistan proud. May this be one of many more success stories that take our green flag to new heights!”
