Pakistan’s startup ecosystem is maturing as favorable economic and demographic conditions have established a sprouting startup environment in Pakistan.
Pakistan’s startup ecosystem is maturing as favorable economic and demographic conditions have established a sprouting startup environment in Pakistan. Although Pakistan requires combined, cooperative and collaborative efforts from the side of government, workforce and investors to ensure that it can, ultimately, reach its entrepreneurial true self.
Basically, there are three compact factors responsible for creating a startup-conductive business environment in Pakistan. Firstly, the country’s economy is exponentially increasing and a bigger middle class is emerging with more spending capacity.
The second factor is the 3G and 4G connections is the country have increased four-fold over the last three years which marks a high level of connectivity.
Lastly, Pakistan is among the youngest countries in the world with an average age of 23 and more than the two-third of the country’s population is below the age of 30.
Pakistan is a young country of well over 200 million people and many of whom are connected with themselves online. The government has been quick to find economic opportunities on offer from such a scenario, responding by setting up incubators, offering tax concessions, and relaxing regulations.
It has also been boosted by the private sector which has not merely developed numerous local venture capital funds, but has also drawn attention from global incubation players for instance Google Nest I/O and others. The result has been the emergence of a growing startup ecosystem in Pakistan.
These trends of a maturing startup market are indicative , although there is still a considerable way to go. The startup growth in the country remains considerably slower than in some of its peer markets, using the Global Entrepreneurship Development Index (GEDI) as an indicator.
Pakistan ranks as the second lowest country on the GEDI in the Asia Pacific region. Moreover, it also ranks behind the Middle East countries and the North African regions in the world. The rankings are based on the volume of venture capital funding being drawn by various economies
Thus as a result Pakistan still has a long way to go before it can be declared as a mature startup market. The three key pillars that can help empowering Pakistan to reach its entrepreneurial potential involve the government, investors, and the workforce respectively.