6 min read
To start a company from scratch is a surely a big deal. There are countless sleepless nights and sweating days behind the success of any startup. Then there are some startups that fail and never get back on their feet. We can also find startups that went to the brink of extinction and came back swinging. The trick of survival has always been to learn from the past and revive because it is the courage to continue that counts.
Given below is an account of 10 Pakistani startups that blew the whistles some time back but are not existent anymore.
1. KiaSceneHai:
KiaSceneHai was first of its kind event discovery portal in Pakistan started back in 2013. The idea was to bring the info regarding all of the events happening in the cities to one platform. The startup provided services like event discovery, event services and online ticketing. It was featured as one of 10 Early-age Pakistani Startups with great Potential. The startup worked seamlessly for about 2 years and 8 months. We find it heart-rending that this scene-making startup is nowhere in the scene right now. Since October 2015, the website registered to it is closed and the social media page is inactive.
2. Savaree:
Savaree was one of the first few ride-sharing platform in Pakistan which started back in 2014. Inspired by the far-reaching benefits of Carpooling, this startup had a good sense of direction and was able to get acceleration at Invest2Innovate in 2014. This startup had worked for about 1 years and 6 months when it got acquired by the Middle East-based startup Careem as part of one strategic move. Savaree said Good-Bye to its well-wishers through the blog, “We Savaree-ed Once”. Madeeha, one of the co-founders of Savaree has joined Careem as Product Lead for Pakistan.
3. Poocho.co:
Poocho.co was going to be one first Pakistani startup where users could post questions and could get their questions answered by other users. Kamil Rextin, the founder of startup poocho.co has noticeable presence on Quora and wanted to make an interactive, structured and open platform to share ideas and ask questions more particularly about startups in Pakistan. The startup failed to take off, however. The reason came out to be neglecting customers’ point of view and approach. The founder further explained on what caused the failure by saying that they failed to gather the users. Today their website is up for sale.
4. Urbanite.pk:
Urbanite.pk was an information service provider platform which started back in 2012. The startup worked by allowing consumers to interact with different hotels. The consumers just had to choose from hundreds of restaurants, view their menus online and get the food delivered at their doorstep. The startup was first acquired by E-Takeaway which was a Denmark-based online food delivery service. The startup was a big success as it collaborated with about 100+ restaurants in short span of time and had appreciable presence within Karachi especially. This thriving startup caught an eye of EatOye, a similar startup which was looking to expand its business. Eatoye.pk acquired urbanite.pk. Urbanite.pk’s domain name and customers have been acquired by EatOye with the transaction. Urbanite.pk now directs to EatOye homepage.
5. Asani.com.pk:
Schibsted Media Group founded asani.com.pk for Pakistani customers. It was basically a classified site where the sellers post ads to sell off second-hand goods and interested buyers contact them. The startup became a great success within short span of time. People all over Pakistan started to know and use them. Their advertisements became common on televisions. Olx.com.pk, under a strategic move, acquired asani.com.pk in first few months of 2015. Its social media pages are inactive since January 2015 and asani.com.pk redirects to olx.com.pk, today.
6. 3restart:
3restart was a Pakistani startup founded by a NUST alumnus in 2012. 3Restart aimed at providing game-based learning solutions to improve the memory of children. The startup was well-focused and won at Islamabad Ilm Apps Challenge. It got its initial mentoring from Invest2Innovate. At the ChallengeX competition which was hosted for the first time ever in Pakistan by Invest2Innovate, 3restart was one of the four startups which got selected to participate in ChallengeX regional finals which held in India. Unfortunately, the time did not side with team 3restart and they closed down possibly due to financial reasons. Its social media pages are inactive since April 2015 and its website today redirects to null.
7. Pforplan.com:
Incubated at Plan9, P for Plan was a marketplace that connected people who were looking for the perfect vendor or venue with vendors or venue owners who were looking to rent out their service. The startup had viable social media presence on many platforms. The startup CEO Moeez Javed Rizvi was also running another startup, Virgin Teez. He shut PforPlan down for it. Moeez then devoted himself solely towards Virgin Tees and made his place among Pakistan’s 25 high achievers under 25 years of age-2014 for it.
8. Allsecure:
People at Technolsys produced one of Pakistan first mobile security application. The application hit the android market and managed to get some installs as well. Abubakr Eirabie, a software engineer by profession, produced Allsecure back in 2013 with the team. The startup remained abuzz for a year or so and got pulled down in July 2014 owing to some differences among the founders. The founders then started a startup namely Toyzone and a software services company.
9. Parlor Buzz:
Parlor Buzz was basically a website that focused on serving as a platform where women could find information related to beauty salons. The startup was welcomed wholeheartedly when it started. The website gave helpful information about available salon deals as well. The startup made its name to some pretty known forums like Tribune as well. It is a relatively recent startup and remained dynamic in the year 2015. Today, the startup is supposedly closed. The website is non-functional and there has also been no social media activity since August 2015.
10. Blue Saint:
Blue Saint was a Pakistani startup which was trying to modernize Pakistan’s handmade crafts and made an e-commerce store where these crafts could find. The startup was aiming to bring good name to Pakistan by selling its cultural products in international markets. This Pakistani Startup was surely reviving the world of handicrafts in Pakistan. The startup was founded in August 2013 and got a chance of being accelerated at Invest2Invest. The startup graduated from Invest2Innovate Accelerator Program in 2015. In this short span of time, the startup clinched some pretty encouraging successes. The primary product testing of Kashi Kari range was held in Philippines and lately, Blue Saints’ products flew to as far as USA and UK. The startup remained functional for about 2 years. The startup got pulled down in August 2015 as its founder had found a full-time job in a private sector banking organization.
