The Shahjehan Syed Karim Incubation Center (SSKIC) at the Institute of Business Management (IoBM) successfully executed the Final Pitching Round for Cohort 5, providing aspiring startups with a wonderful structured incubation platform to present their business ideas to an esteemed panel of industry experts and academic leaders. The participating startups showcased innovative concepts, which were evaluated on their practicality, innovation, and scalability. Over the past 4 cohorts, SSKIC has successfully gradated 24 start-ups and various success stories have emerged and scaled both nationally and globally contributing to the start-up ecosystem.
Notable start-ups that have graduated from SSKIC are: Creative 3D, Chiragh Education Technologies, Zarai Baramdaat, Filtresha, Arm Rehab Technologies etc.
The distinguished jury comprised Mr. Danish Ejaz, CEO, MAdvertising; Mr. Shahrukh Nadeem, CEO, MyWater Pakistan; Ms. Maheen Salman, CEO, Global Innovatrix (Pvt.) Ltd, Dr. Imran Batada, Chief Digital Officer and Director, Center of Information Technology, IoBM; Ms. Zehra Raza, Manager Human Resources – People & Culture, Seagold (Private) Limited; Dr. Muhammad Imran Majid, Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Electrical Engineering, IoBM; Mr. Nabhan S. Karim, Head of MARCOM, IoBM; Ms. Abeer Saleem, Chief Representative – Pakistan, Dubai Chambers; Mr. Jibran Siddiqui, Founder, Money Matters and Dr. Bazla Mukhtar, Assistant Professor, Department of Entrepreneurship, IoBM.
The start-up founders really valued the pitching opportunity, one of the Founder and CEO of Curesofts, Mr. Rayyan Shah shared: ‘I genuinely valued this experience. The pitching sessions were disciplined, purposeful and treating pitching the way it should be treated seriously. The jury didn’t just listen they challenged assumptions and raised the kind of uncomfortable questions that real businesses must answer whether prepared or not.
The insights shared by the eminent jury members were especially practical and experience-driven. The kind of guidance that comes from years in the field. We’ll be applying these learnings immediately, In shaa Allah. Thank you to IoBM and SSKIC for the wonderful opportunity’.
One of the jury members and prominent IoBM alumni, Ms. Zehra Raza, shared, ‘Thanking Institute of BusinessManagement – for giving me the opportunity to be the Jury for their 5th Incubation Flagship Program – Pitching Round. Amazed to see some very interesting potential business ideas from our talented youth and glad to provide them with the direction they needed. They are fortunate and my message to them is to make the most of whatever is being invested in them as we come from an era where there was seldom direction and guidance – we learned it all the hard way’.
The interactive session enabled participants to receive valuable feedback and insights from the jury, reinforcing SSKIC’s commitment to nurturing entrepreneurial talent and supporting the development of viable, growth-oriented startups.
Mr. Raza Abbas, SSKIC- Head of Incubation shared the outreach of SSKIC increased in cohort 5, pleased to witness rise in out of city applicants and few start-ups especially travelled from Lahore and Khairpur for the final pitching round which reflects SSKIC-IoBM inclusion in practice and equal opportunity for our talented youth.
