Two Pakistani startup founders make it to Forbes 30 Under 30, Class of 2017

Forbes, a well-known American journal, has released its famous annual feature, 30 Under 30, for the year 2017. A few Pakistani individuals, including Waqas Ali and Bilal Athar, have made Pakistan proud by getting featured in the IT related rankings for Asia.

Bilal Athar, who is the CEO of Wifigen, was shortlisted by Forbes for their 30 Under 30 Enterprise Technology List. Bilal was one of the 30 talented Asian individuals who were on the list. Bilal Athar is currently the Chief Executive Officer at Wifigen, a startup which was a member of Plan9’s 5th incubation cycle. The startup later swept a lot of applause and was also able to grab a $1 Million valuation.

Waqas Ali, the other Pakistani shortlisted by Forbes, is the Chief Executive Officer of Markhor, an ecommerce platform. Waqas Ali was shortlisted by Forbes in its 30 Under 30 Retail & Ecommerce department, Asia. In 2014, Markhor started its Kickstarter Campaign and was able to raise $107,286 from 508 backers from across the world. Fast forward a year, Markhor was the first Pakistani startup to get itself enrolled at Y Combinator.

Whereas, Wifigen is a platform that can link the consumers with corporate companies. Using Wifigen, companies will be able to offer free WiFi to the public who would allow their data to be shared with the company. Markhor, on the other hand, is an ecommerce platform that specializes in making artistically profound shoes and accessories out of Pakistani leather industry and then sells them abroad.

Forbes 30 Under 30 is an annual feature of Forbes which honors 600 exceptional individuals under the age of 30, from across the globe. Forbes lists all 600 individuals in 20 different industries including Media, Sports, Enterprise Technology and Retail and Ecommerce.

Image — Forbes