021Disrupt hosts 1000+ innovators, 600+ startups, and 20+ investors for its third edition in Karachi

[Baby Leone]

The third edition of Pakistan’s leading entrepreneurial and innovation conference, 021Disrupt, was organised by The Nest I/O on November 2nd & 3rd at a hotel in Karachi; the conference aimed to connect local and international investors, innovators, and tech pioneers with the entrepreneurial community of Pakistan.

This year 021Disrupt witnessed a footprint of 1100+ entrepreneurs, investors, influencers, professionals and students attending the conference from all over Pakistan. The speaker line-up included global voices from the USA, UAE, Norway, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam among other countries. More than 600 startups from across the country engaged with 23 investors in over 200+ office hours.

There were major announcements at the conference that aim to influence the investment climate in the coming years.

Investment announcements at 021Disrupt 2019:
1. Fatima Gobi Ventures (Airlift): Closed the biggest Series A funding of Pakistan of $12 million in Airlift, a mass-transit ride hailing service.

2. TelloTalk: Pakistan’s first homegrown messenger closed their Seed Funding Round of $1.2 million led by Spark Labs and multiple global investors who are investing in Pakistan for the first time.

3. Swvl: The company announced that it would invest $25 million in Pakistan in the next two years to mobilise 500,000 commuters, create 10,000 jobs per year, fund pre-seed startups working in the mobility space, and build an off-shore support office.

4. PriceOye: Closed a seed funding round of $450,000 led by Fatima Ventures, Artistic Ventures and Kinetico.

5. Oman Technology Fund: Closed Seed Funding Round of $100,000 in Queno, an ed-tech startup that provides a communication solution for parents and teachers.

6. Find My Adventure: Announced acquisition of K-Town Rooms and the launch of 100 FMA Rooms across Pakistan with a flat rent.

HBL, via COO Saghir Mufti, announced its Open Banking initiative and the launch of an Investment Fund for FinTech Startups by January 2020.

Rabeel Warraich, Founder & Managing Director Sarmayacar also launched the Venture Capital Association of Pakistan (VCAP), an association of 12 VCs fueling the investment landscape of Pakistan.

The conference hosted talks and panel discussions addressing diverse themes of engineering, technology, investments, user design, civic innovation, mobility and transport, tourism and agritech.

Panels at 021Disrupt 2019
The 'Cash to Scale' panel hosted local and global investors who have invested in Pakistan and explored the investment climate of the local ecosystem. 021Disrupt also hosted the biggest Mobility & Transport panel putting all competition together with disruptors from major ride-hailing services including: Roshni Rides, Careem, Swvl, Bykea, and Airlift.

In a houseful session, Wasim Akram, Shaneira Akram, Shehzad Roy, Aminah Sheikh, and Hina Khawaja engaged in a conversation moderated by Shehryaar Taseer to use the soft power of influence and project a positive image of Pakistan to create social impact. First movers of the fintech industry in Pakistan also mapped the path to the future of fintech in the 'Banking on Fintech' panel.

“If we are to make sure that Pakistan is going to become one of the greatest startup destinations, we will have to do it together, and collaboration is where we’ve got to focus. 021Disrupt is our attempt at doing that. We started it not to hold another conference, but to have conversations, to decide what is important, to bring relevant people into the country, and to facilitate the growth of the startup ecosystem, because I feel that the time is right”, said Jehan Ara in her closing speech.


https://www.dawn.com/news/1515038/0...20-investors-for-its-third-edition-in-karachi

 

[Dubious]

@ps3linux Pakpositive news

Pakistani startups rake in millions of dollars
The Newspaper's Staff Reporter
Updated November 05, 2019

Pakistani tech startups have raked in millions of dollars from local and foreign investors as a number of deals were announced over the weekend. — Shutterstock/File
KARACHI: Pakistani tech startups have raked in millions of dollars from local and foreign investors as a number of deals were announced over the weekend.

Around half a dozen startups disclosed their investment rounds at 021Disrupt, a major tech and entrepreneurship conference.

This year marks the watershed moment for Pakistani startups, especially in terms of funding, claimed major investors and entrepreneurs at a two-day tech conference in Karachi.

On the sidelines of the event, Airlift — a smart bus service operating in major Pakistani cities — announced its Series A investment at a massive $12 million, the largest in the country at this stage. The round was led by a major US-based venture capital firm, First Round Capital that has/had stakes/exits in the likes of 9GAG and Uber, with particpation from Fatima Gobi Ventures and Indus Valley Capital.

Within the same industry, the Egyptian headquartered Swvl shared its plans of investing $25m in Pakistan over a period of two years to help solve commutation issues and create 10,000 jobs. The startup already has designated Karachi as one of its engineering hubs.

Tellotalk – a home-grown messaging app – also made public the news of its seed funding by a consortium of investors including SparkLabs, ALM Holdings, Cocoon Ignite Ventures and One Capital as foreign partners, and TPL and i2i Ventures among local ones. The money is to be deployed for marketing and advertising, infrastructure expansion and product development. The list doesn’t end here as PriceOye — an e-commerce aggregator based out of Islamabad — announced a seed round worth $450,000, led by Fatima Ventures with participation from Artistic Ventures and Kinetico. The company hints at competing in the international market, as per the press release.

Queno — an edtech offering enterprise resource planning software for schools — disclosed seed money worth $100,000 from the Oman Technology Fund.

The event also saw an acquisition as Find My Adventure — a tour discovery and booking platform — disclosed it has bought KTown Rooms. Another major development was Habib Bank Ltd sharing its plans to set up a fund for startups soon. Meanwhile, Rabeel Warraich of Sarmayacar — Pakistan-focused firm – announced the establishment of Venture Capital Association of Pakistan, in collaboration with 12 institutional investors.

The event closed with an interesting talk from the Pakistani founder of Careem, Mudassir Sheikha, who shared his journey from an apartment in Karachi to building the biggest tech company in the region.

Jehan Ara, the brainchild behind this event, concluded with “this will create many more entrepreneurs and spur a culture of innovation and when we are here next year, this day will be the turning point.

Published in Dawn, November 5th, 2019

https://www.dawn.com/news/1514991/pakistani-startups-rake-in-millions-of-dollars

 

[ps3linux]

@ps3linux Pakpositive news

Pakistani startups rake in millions of dollars
The Newspaper's Staff Reporter
Updated November 05, 2019

Pakistani tech startups have raked in millions of dollars from local and foreign investors as a number of deals were announced over the weekend. — Shutterstock/File
KARACHI: Pakistani tech startups have raked in millions of dollars from local and foreign investors as a number of deals were announced over the weekend.

Around half a dozen startups disclosed their investment rounds at 021Disrupt, a major tech and entrepreneurship conference.

This year marks the watershed moment for Pakistani startups, especially in terms of funding, claimed major investors and entrepreneurs at a two-day tech conference in Karachi.

On the sidelines of the event, Airlift — a smart bus service operating in major Pakistani cities — announced its Series A investment at a massive $12 million, the largest in the country at this stage. The round was led by a major US-based venture capital firm, First Round Capital that has/had stakes/exits in the likes of 9GAG and Uber, with particpation from Fatima Gobi Ventures and Indus Valley Capital.

Within the same industry, the Egyptian headquartered Swvl shared its plans of investing $25m in Pakistan over a period of two years to help solve commutation issues and create 10,000 jobs. The startup already has designated Karachi as one of its engineering hubs.

Tellotalk – a home-grown messaging app – also made public the news of its seed funding by a consortium of investors including SparkLabs, ALM Holdings, Cocoon Ignite Ventures and One Capital as foreign partners, and TPL and i2i Ventures among local ones. The money is to be deployed for marketing and advertising, infrastructure expansion and product development. The list doesn’t end here as PriceOye — an e-commerce aggregator based out of Islamabad — announced a seed round worth $450,000, led by Fatima Ventures with participation from Artistic Ventures and Kinetico. The company hints at competing in the international market, as per the press release.

Queno — an edtech offering enterprise resource planning software for schools — disclosed seed money worth $100,000 from the Oman Technology Fund.

The event also saw an acquisition as Find My Adventure — a tour discovery and booking platform — disclosed it has bought KTown Rooms. Another major development was Habib Bank Ltd sharing its plans to set up a fund for startups soon. Meanwhile, Rabeel Warraich of Sarmayacar — Pakistan-focused firm – announced the establishment of Venture Capital Association of Pakistan, in collaboration with 12 institutional investors.

The event closed with an interesting talk from the Pakistani founder of Careem, Mudassir Sheikha, who shared his journey from an apartment in Karachi to building the biggest tech company in the region.

Jehan Ara, the brainchild behind this event, concluded with “this will create many more entrepreneurs and spur a culture of innovation and when we are here next year, this day will be the turning point.

Published in Dawn, November 5th, 2019

https://www.dawn.com/news/1514991/pakistani-startups-rake-in-millions-of-dollars

Dear @Dubious keep doing what you are doing, good news/positivity is like the lone lotus in the filthy pond. That one lone lotus transforms the entire pond in to a surreal beauty.

Its not a joke that in a small market like Pakistan they have been able to raise Rs.1.8 billion juts one company, I know many of the firms investing in different venture and that had they were not absolutely sure of handsome ROI, they would not have invested a dime.

Nutshell positive for Pakistan as international VC/PE firms have started to look at Pakistan as a possible investment avenue.

 

[jamahir]

There must be a hundred people in that group yet not a single operating system designed by them and not a single microprocessor. The same is the case in India with its thousands of computer engineers graduating every year.

Indian and Pakistani computer scientists / engineers do not do fundamental research. They just work at application level.

@Soumitra, do not say I just target Indian computing people.

 

[fitpOsitive]

Indian and Pakistani computer scientists / engineers do not do fundamental research. They just work at application level.

Jo bikta hai woi bnaty hain.. Hamsy processor kon lyga..

 

[jamahir]

Jo bikta hai woi bnaty hain..

Well, that's a very practical statement.

We should have some dreams as well, yes ?? For example, work on Quantum Computing.

Hamsy processor kon lyga..

If a processor is good ( fast, efficient, radically new etc ) then people will buy or adopt. For example, there is a new open source processor project called RISC V which is being adopted by many people.

 

[fitpOsitive]

Well, that's a very practical statement.

We should have some dreams as well, yes ?? For example, work on Quantum Computing.

Theoratically yes. Programming part? Yes you can do that as well. Research? Of course you can do that.
But, the question is : banwaogy kahan se? Then ultimately you have to leave your country.
Even China does not have many capabilities. So enjoy dreaming

 

[jamahir]

Even China does not have many capabilities.

I agree that there is no Chinese native OS or processor. Even with all their money and number of scientists their Loongson processor is basically the American MIPS design and their OS, Kylin, is basically Linux.

So enjoy dreaming

Well, I have been designing a 32-bit, RISC-based processor for some years. It is still in design phase and the next step is to emulate it in a FPGA board. Been searching for financial partnership to buy the required hardware and for hiring some engineers.

 

[fitpOsitive]

Well, that's a very practical statement.

We should have some dreams as well, yes ?? For example, work on Quantum Computing.



If a processor is good ( fast, efficient, radically new etc ) then people will buy or adopt. For example, there is a new open source processor project called RISC V which is being adopted by many people.

RISCV is just like Linux. Yes it's open source, but everyone is developing its own, and almost No one is buying. The problem is not processor design, whole of the industry is sitting somewhere else and if someone does something like that, that whole thing turns out to be experimental.

I agree that there is no Chinese native OS or processor. Even with all their money and number of scientists their Loongson processor is basically the American MIPS design and their OS, Kylin, is basically Linux.



Well, I have been designing a 32-bit, RISC-based processor for some years. It is still in design phase and the next step is to emulate it in a FPGA board. Been searching for financial partnership to buy the required hardware and for hiring some engineers.

What hardware you need and how much money you have( I am not gonna ask you for that money ).

 

[jamahir]

RISCV is just like Linux. Yes it's open source, but everyone is developing its own, and almost No one is buying.

You are correct. There is an Indian RISC-V project called Shakti ( meaning "Strength" in Hindi ) that is being developed in IIT-Madras institute.

As you said, RISC-V is like Linux. Generally, no one buys but just implements it themselves.

What hardware you need

There is a company called Xilinx which makes FPGA boards. Another company is Altera.

I had visited the local sales office of Xilinx some years ago and one sales person there told me that a basic unit costs about 1.25 Lakhs. One complication is that I don't know what number of "Configurable Logic Blocks" should be there in the FPGA board that I should purchase for my project. I don't know mainly because I am not an electronics engineer but more a designer. Therefore I don't know what FPGA board I should purchase for this initial step in the project.

Other than a FPGA board I would perhaps need an oscilloscope. Plus a basic PC to configure the FPGA board. I don't think I will need much else.

and how much money you have( I am not gonna ask you for that money ).

Nothing. Which is why I am looking for financial partnership. Xilinx has a sales system where they sell at a subsidized price to any buyer who is part of an academic project. So I am also searching for a project partner who is part of an academic institute.

Lastly, I intend to make this project an open source one.

 

[fitpOsitive]

You are correct. There is an Indian RISC-V project called Shakti ( meaning "Strength" in Hindi ) that is being developed in IIT-Madras institute.

As you said, RISC-V is like Linux. Generally, no one buys but just implements it themselves.



There is a company called Xilinx which makes FPGA boards. Another company is Altera.

I had visited the local sales office of Xilinx some years ago and one sales person there told me that a basic unit costs about 1.25 Lakhs. One complication is that I don't know what number of "Configurable Logic Blocks" should be there in the FPGA board that I should purchase for my project. I don't know mainly because I am not an electronics engineer but more a designer. Therefore I don't know what FPGA board I should purchase for this initial step in the project.

Other than a FPGA board I would perhaps need an oscilloscope. Plus a basic PC to configure the FPGA board. I don't think I will need much else.



Nothing. Which is why I am looking for financial partnership. Xilinx has a sales system where they sell at a subsidized price to any buyer who is part of an academic project. So I am also searching for a project partner who is part of an academic institute.

Lastly, I intend to make this project an open source one.

@jamahir
Buy a cheap development board. Will cost around 10 dollars. Don't go for xilinx(onnchi dukan, pheeky pakwan). Look at the link below.
https://hackaday.com/2019/11/03/the-5-fpga/
Download free development software(usually called web pack, this vivado web pack etc), develop and test core(yeah its possible, I actually do that).
When ready, talk to Xilinx alliance partner program guys, they will ask you 10000 questions and will tell you 10000 requirements.
When everything goes OK, place your core for sale on xilinx cores.
Don't need anything else. Or may be if possible, then buy some cheap logic analyser(good one will cost around 300 dollars).

 

[ps3linux]

Man you are really evil people, cant let a poor guy like me have some fun, watch a movie drang you have been having lot of fun.

 

[Syed1.]

There must be a hundred people in that group yet not a single operating system designed by them and not a single microprocessor. The same is the case in India with its thousands of computer engineers graduating every year.

Indian and Pakistani computer scientists / engineers do not do fundamental research. They just work at application level.

@Soumitra, do not say I just target Indian computing people.

Making a microproc, FPGA, SoC etc is not child's play also it requires millions of dollars in engineering hours and fabrication hence you only have a few big players in this field in the world.

 

[jamahir]

@jamahir
Buy a cheap development board. Will cost around 10 dollars. Don't go for xilinx(onnchi dukan, pheeky pakwan). Look at the link below.
https://hackaday.com/2019/11/03/the-5-fpga/
Download free development software(usually called web pack, this vivado web pack etc), develop and test core

Thanks a lot for the info.

yeah its possible, I actually do that

Is that your interest ??

When ready, talk to Xilinx alliance partner program guys, they will ask you 10000 questions and will tell you 10000 requirements.

Okay.

When everything goes OK, place your core for sale on xilinx cores.

Is "Xilinx cores" like a marketplace ??

Don't need anything else. Or may be if possible, then buy some cheap logic analyser(good one will cost around 300 dollars).

Okay.

Making a microproc, FPGA, SoC etc is not child's play also it requires millions of dollars in engineering hours and fabrication hence you only have a few big players in this field in the world.

It is not about money at all. As I said earlier, China can put in vast amounts of money but they have been only able to produce the Loongson processor which is their implementation of the American MIPS processor architecture.

Some years ago I wrote a simple operating system which was my basic implementation of a microkernel OS design. It did not take me any money at all. First it took me three or four months of learning the x86 Assembly language and then three or four months of actually writing the OS. Just time and idea, not money.

 

[fitpOsitive]

Is that your interest ??

No, its my profession. Xilinx cores is a rough term, basically a Xilinx partner can sell core through Xilinx. So you see. Talk to them how it goes and then just do it.

Remember the term Soft core microprocessor. @jamahir