Ms. Angela Rayner, the Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the British Parliament visited NSTP, accompanied by Lord Wajid Khan of the UK House of Lords, the Shadow Minister for Communities and Local Government and Housing, on October 3, 2022.  They were received by Dr Rizwan Riaz, Pro-Rector Research, Innovation & Commercialization, and the ensuing meeting provided them with a detailed briefing about NUST’s flagship project, in the name of the Park. They were provided with visits to the Hi-Tech labs as well as various multinational companies within.The guests expressed their appreciation for NSTP’s R&D ecosystem [...]

LearnOBots is implementing the largest STEAM deployment in public schools in Pakistan through a public-private partnership. The flagship STEAM product LearnOSTEAM will be empowering 200 schools, hundreds of teachers and thousands of students in 14 districts of Gilgit Baltistan. The province is targeted because schools therein are remote and in hard-to-reach areas. The first maker space has also been launched that shall be expanded to hundreds of other schools. Chief minister GB Mr. Khalid Khurshid, Chief Secretary GB Mr. Mohyuddin Wani and CEO LearnOBots Mr. Faisal Laghari inaugurated the maker space. Once successfully completed here, this [...]

A female-led startup, Orbit-Ed from NSTP, raised a $500k investment from the Silicon Valley investor, Boost VC, earlier this year, bringing their total pre-seed funding to $800,000. Boost VC is an early-stage VC firm founded and run by Adam Draper that invests in pre-seed startups accelerating the Sci-Fi Future that includes aerospace, energy, virtual reality, and other tech-related verticals. Orbit-Ed is the first startup from Pakistan operating in the local market to secure money from Boost VC and the second entirely female-led startup from Pakistan to secure venture capital. The startup is a gamified learning platform with [...]

The 17th Selection Board of NSTP brought about 36 companies to the surface, out of which 7 were called for the pitch before the board based on their respective average scores. Each of these shortlisted companies went through a series of rigorous screenings and selection processes, pitching themselves to a team of experts from the industry and academia so as to become part of the innovative system of NSTP. Five out of the total were recommended for office space at NSTP. The selection board was chaired by Dr. Rizwan Riaz, Pro-Rector RIC NUST and Vice President [...]

A Pakistani Startup, which has taken inspiration from China’s JD.com has managed to raise seed funding from scores of investors including the PayPal founder Peter Thiel. Securing a funding of $7.9 million, PriceOye has managed to consolidate its position as the leading electronics marketplace in the country. This is Peter Thiel’s first investment to name in Pakistan. The round was led by US-based JAM Fund while additional investors amongst many included Beenext, Tokopedia, DG Daiwa, Mantis VC, HOF Capital, Jet.com’s investor Palm Drive Capital, and Atlas Ventures. Additionally, notable unicorn founders Peter Thiel, Mercury Bank’s Immad [...]

Vladimira sits on the advisory boards of a number of impact businesses including Colorintech, Prospero World and angel-invests, including NUR, a mindfulness platform for the Arab world. She is a frequent speaker on topics related to entrepreneurship as a force of good, entrepreneurial mental health and opportunities across emerging markets. She often coaches businesses leaders on how to design healthy and high-performing cultures and she spent a significant time in growing the entrepreneurial ecosystems in Central and Eastern Europe, London and East Africa. She has also engaged in public policy-making at global forums including the European [...]

The National Science and Technology Park (NSTP) SEZ Committee in its 2nd committee meeting on the 27th of June 2022, approved the entry of 23 new enterprises. Both local and foreign R&D based enterprises began entering NSTP after being launched as a Special Economic Zone (SEZ), fastening its colonization process. Amongst them, 2 companies already have reached the Zone Enterprise benchmark, in the committee’s first meeting back in December 2021. The second meeting was chaired by AVM (Retd.) Dr Rizwan Riaz, Pro-Rector (RIC) NUST and VP NSTP, with officials from both federal and district administration in [...]

Xylexa is an Islamabad-based startup that has developed an artificial intelligence-powered cloud-based tool, so as to help in the early diagnosis of cancer through the use of mammograms. Instead of a radiologist studying the X-ray with the naked eye and then giving off a final verdict, CEO Xylexa Mr. Shahrukh Babar is determined to change the system and aims at producing more such inventions in the field of technology that also are economically efficient. By making use of Augmented Reality (AR) and advanced image processing, healthcare professionals gain a huge helping hand with their diagnoses. Being [...]

Director of National Science and Technology Park (NSTP), Dr. Salman Raza Naqvi was invited as a panelist at the National Conference on #WorldEnvironmentDay where he spoke about renewable energy. While speaking to the audience, Dr Salman Raza Naqvi said that sustainable renewable energy and effective solid waste management plays a pivotal role in the economic growth of any society. Considering this view, developing countries like Pakistan, are facing serious challenges in implementing renewable energy at the present time. Speaking about the policies pertaining to the subject matter, he highlighted that the Government of Pakistan should take [...]

Meenah Tariq is a VC investor turned entrepreneur - CEO and co-founder at Metric, a VC-funded fintech automating accounting for SMEs and startups in emerging markets. She is a Partner at Karavan, a Middle-east-based fund focused on early-stage startups in Pakistan. Meenah has supported thousands of entrepreneurs over the last decade, including directly training 700+ business owners, across a wide variety of industries and geographies, in Pakistan, Nepal, Iraq, and Bangladesh. She has been designing and implementing programs to practically support women entrepreneurs, encourage entrepreneurial mindsets in young people, and equip entrepreneurs with the business acumen [...]