At least 16 different startups from across Pakistan pitched their business ideas to a set of decorated judges during the Huawei Cloud Startup program.
The program is a global support program launched by Huawei Cloud for international startups to help accelerate the business growth of technology startups and ecosystem partners.
Huawei initiated the program with Ignite, NIC and their partners. The partnership hopes to enable a “Digital Pakistan” and aims to bolster the implementation of Cloud technology through knowledge sharing.
The competition was judged by a panel of highly reputed experts from the Government and private sect. Each startup was given seven minutes for pitching and five minutes for questions and answers.
Eligible startups that will be selected to join the program will receive free cloud resources, professional technical training, GTM support, mentorship and marketing benefits.
The top 10 startups will qualify for the final round in three different levels and get Huawei Cloud credits and benefits.
The three tiers include:
- Tier 1 ‘Hall of Fame’ which will include the top three teams
- Tier 2 ‘All Star’ comprised of the top 4-6
- Tier 3 ‘Rookie’ startups that end at 7-10 positions
The 16 startups were shortlisted after an application process that included giving their company name and/or team profile, describing their product/solutions, market analysis, reports for the last three years and projections for the next three.
With the intent to accelerate startup growth, Huawei established a startup advisory committee composed of Specialists support including legal counsel, CTO, CDO, corporate marketing, industry experts, senior executives at Huawei, founders of established startups, venture capital firms and government officials.
Zeeshan Khattak, Chief Commercial Officer of the Pakistan Software Export Board said that initiatives like Huawei Cloud Startup Program would “help foster entrepreneurship and innovation and also motivate and encourage new and potential talent in ICT ecosystem.”
