The National Incubation Center (NIC) Islamabad, a joint venture between Ignite and Jazz, the top digital service provider in Pakistan, has played a key role in fostering innovation and entrepreneurship there. The NIC has supported 295 businesses across 12 cohorts since its inception, generating over Rs 5.6 billion in sales and luring over Rs 7 billion in investment. Due to the companies’ creation of over 20,000 jobs, Pakistan’s economy has also grown.
Aamer Ejaz, Chief Digital Officer of Jazz, Asim Shahryar, CEO of Ignite, and Parvez Abbasi, Program Director of NIC, highlighted the NIC’s influence on the nation’s startup environment during a recent interactive session. They emphasised the value of giving entrepreneurs a platform to interact with hundreds of mentors, angel investors, and venture capital firms in order to create impactful answers to some of the most urgent socioeconomic concerns.
A key element in the NIC’s success is Jazz’s dedication to fostering innovation and developing the local startup environment. In order to boost socioeconomic growth, Asim Shahryar, CEO of Ignite, stressed the government’s ambition for Pakistan to become a digital and innovation hub. Ignite has established seven additional NICs across Pakistan in Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar, Quetta, Hyderabad, Faisalabad, and Rawalpindi. Over the past four to five years, these locations have served as incubators for more than 1,200 startups, which have so far raised more than Rs. 21 billion in funding.
Jazz xlr8, Pakistan’s top accelerator programme, is housed at NIC Islamabad and aids firms accepted into the programme in scaling and expanding. A flagship programme named Foundher has been developed to support the 24% of business founders at NIC Islamabad who are female. The daycare facility built for female entrepreneurs and employees has also received recognition for its accessibility to wheelchair users. Foreign investment has been attracted as a result of this dedication to giving local startups a dedicated space to innovate.
Overall, the success of the NIC Islamabad is a testament to the potential of Pakistan’s startup ecosystem and its capacity to develop significant solutions to deal with the most serious socioeconomic issues facing the nation.
