As many as 28 startups hailing from different universities of Pakistan have won the Higher Education Commission’s (HEC) Innovator Seed Fund (ISF) under the Higher Education Development in Pakistan (HEDP) Program for grant of up to Rs. 10 million each for their groundbreaking innovative business ideas.
In this connection, HEC held a two-day National Pitching Competition under ISF, wherein as many as 65 startups competed with their innovative entrepreneurial startups in the areas of Agriculture, Food Resource and Agri Tech, E-commerce and Smart Retail, Education and EdTech, Emerging Technologies, Health Care and Health Tech, Housing Construction and Manufacturing, Sustainable Development, Climate and Energy, and Transportation and Logistics.
The winning startup teams were from different universities across Pakistan, making the participant pool diverse and inclusive, whereas the jury consisted of 14 notable entrepreneurs / industry experts having ample experience in their relevant fields.
Innovator Seed Fund (ISF) is an initiative of HEC’s World Bank-funded project, titled “Higher Education Development in Pakistan” (HEDP). It provides entrepreneurial support and seed funding to early-stage startups through HEC-recognized Business Incubation Centres at public sector universities of Pakistan.
HEC received 205 concept notes this year after advertisement of ISF Call 2022-23 in January, out of which, 144 startups submitted their Full Business Proposals. Finally, 65 startups were shortlisted for the pitching competition after passing them through different phases of scrutiny and evaluations.
