LAHORE: LUMS Center for Entrepreneurship, in collaboration with Ilm Ideas 2 and Techstars,
organized a themed Startup Weekend event at LUMS to scout and support innovators looking to
address the enrollment, retention and learning outcome challenges in the education sector of
Pakistan.
The event started with Dr. Zartash Afzal Uzmi, LUMS faculty member and facilitator for Startup
Weekend Lahore, commencing the proceedings and opening remarks presented by Shahida
Saleem, Team Lead Pakistan Education Innovation Fund (Ilm Ideas 2). From among the 130
participants of the Start Weekend, a total of 63 startups made their elevator pitches to the
audience. Nineteen startups were shortlisted to continue with the competition and mentoring
support for the rest of the weekend.
Participants worked tirelessly throughout the weekend including the nights with a passion that
was palpable. The successful business people and educators came in to mentor and coach the
startups and help them polish their business models, financials and even presentations. The hard
work of all the teams culminated where all the 19 shortlisted teams pitched in front of a panel of
judges comprising of Khurram Zafar, Abid Malik, Faisal Bari, Izza Farrukh, Shahida Saleem,
Imran Sarwar and Gauher Aftab.
At the end of the competition, Ilmistan, an online platform for teachers training won the
competition. Keep Schools Safe, a startup focused on imparting disaster preparedness training to
schools, came in second.
According to the founders, there are hundreds of thousands of kids whose education suffer
because of disruptions caused by natural disasters and people-caused incidents in Pakistan.
Edu Care, a startup formed by students of Namal University that aims to build an online
networking platform to connect students in any part of the country with volunteer tutors and
coaches, came in third.
The founders of Educare dedicated the win to the generous donors of Namal University that
enabled them to seek good education and gave them the confidence to start their own ambitious
venture. The Audience Favorite vote went out to SS Gamification, a team who is working on
gamifying social sciences subjects in schools.
Addressing the participants of the Startup Weekend, Shahida Saleem of Ilm Ideas 2 said,
“You all blew me away! Your energy, your passion and your commitment is infectious and I
believe that a lot of social enterprises we saw develop over the weekend will play a pivotal role
in providing 25 million out of school children access to good education.”
The winning team and the top two runners up are offered guaranteed incubation at LUMS Center
for Entrepreneurship while all other participants were encouraged to apply for incubation for the
6th batch of LCE through the online application process.
Startup Weekend Lahore is the Lahore chapter of the global Startup Weekend event held at
LUMS every year. The event is backed by Google for Entrepreneurs, .CO and TechStars and is a
54-hour event that brings together enthusiastic and driven budding entrepreneurs who are
learning the basics of founding startups leading to the path of launching successful ventures.
LUMS Center for Entrepreneurship (LCE) is Pakistans most comprehensive experiential
development platform for budding entrepreneurs that formalizes the process of scouting,
grooming and facilitating passionate startup founders. Gust and Fundacity recently rated LCE the
#1 accelerator in Pakistan and #11 in Asia.
Since its inception in May 2014, LCE has mentored over 130 entrepreneurs who have created
over 400 direct jobs and provided better economic and livelihood opportunities for thousands
more. LCE graduates have already generated PKR 200 Million in revenues and are valued at
PKR 1.5 Billion backed by approximately PKR 150 Million in investment capital by local and
foreign investors.