The Punjab Information Technology Board’s Tech incubator Plan9 opened a three day bi-annual Launchpad event from 24th to 26th August 2020.
With registration of over 60 startups in Elevator Pitch Round from AI, Fintech, EdTech, Hardware, E-Commerce, SaaS and HealthTech. These startups were judged by the domain expert judges. Elevator day judges were Abdul Ghaffar (Goodlife), Bilal,J.Ghumman (SchoolX), Abrahim Ali Shah (Mobility), Asma Salman (Marham), Ali Gul (Mangobaaz), Shahbaz Ali Khan (Club Internet), Bilal Ather (WifiGen), Moeez Javed (Virgin Teez), Yasir Hussain (Qaleen), Saad Munir (HexaClicks), Zo Alam (The Videographers), Ammar Ayub and Shahrukh Swati (Neerpear.org), Talal Burney (Careem), Ali (Alidotpk), Osman Butt, Yasir Hassan Sheikh and Hassan Sadiq (GrocerApp) the last day of Launchpad was the most nerve wrecking of all as the participants were all excited to present and find out who will win the fight for incubation.
In the final round, pitching began where the finalists were allowed 4.5 minutes to present followed by 2.5 minutes of Q&A to convince the judges on why they deserve the spot at Plan9.
The panel of judges comprised of big names from the IT and Tech industry of Pakistan including Omar Shah (COLABS), Ahmed Muzammil (Mezino Technologies), Faizan Aslam (Bookme.pk), Jawad Mehmood (Xint Technology), Dr Faisal Naveed (Scaled Aviation Industries (Pvt) Limited), Meer Anwar (Director Founder Institute), and Ahmed Hamdhan (Principal Consultant, Decrypted Solutions Pvt Ltd). After careful selection process, 15 winners were announced. The final selected 15 startups for the next cycle are Pansari Online, Ridely, Apnahouse.pk, CarHelpline, Fitex, Gharelu, DLIKE, Auto Lamo and Automation, Elixs, ParTech, Foster Learning, FlashPress, Boltay Huroof, Virtual Clinix Lab and KalPay.
A three-day event “The Launchpad 15” skipped The Expo Day and Training Day due to the COVID-19 SOPs by Government of Punjab,to avoid the gathering of crowd