Center for Entrepreneurship (LCE), the university’s flagship experiential development platform for entrepreneurs held an exclusive investor event to mark the graduation of their third cohort of startups graduating from The Foundation incubator. These startups went through an intense, 4-months-long, startup development bootcamp at LUMS and have been mentored by some of the best in the industry. The startups were selected by an elite, independent panel of business leaders 4 months ago after a nation-wide search.
The Foundation Investors Summit:
The Foundation Investors Summit, which was held at the Rausing Executive Development Center in LUMS was the annual investor event organized by the LUMS Center for Entrepreneurship. The event included a mix of both local and international investors who came to show support to these businesses including Salman Amin of Jhonson and Sons, Ali Mukhtar of Fatima Group, Aezaz Hussain of Systems Limited, Farooq Nasim of Gree Pak and Syed Babar Ali amongst others.
Which Startups Pitched at the Summit?
Startups that pitched their businesses at the summit included Jewelry Design Pro, providing a virtual global jewelry marketplace for trading any digitally downloadable design, Repair Desk, a cloud based ERP for mobile phone repair, HealthWire, an e-commerce startup that is increasing the accessibility of doctors and patients, BeautyHooked, an online platform to connect women to beauty services, Wedding Graphers, a branded, economical wedding graphing facility in Lahore. Other startups included, Chinyot.com, the first of its kind online furniture and home décor retail brand in Pakistan, AliffIqra, Pakistan’s first online Quran assistance program, King Kashmiri Tea, a revolution in the traditional Kashmiri tea in the form of teabags, Teachus.pk, an online portal to provide home tuition services by connecting students and tutors and Technician.pk, platform to provide repair and maintenance of electric appliances.
More About LUMS LCE Startups and its Impact:
The LUMS Investors Summit opened with an introduction of LUMS Center for Entrepreneurship (LCE) and the impact that it has created in the past one year. Briefing the audience, Khurram Zafar, Executive Director, LUMS Center for Entrepreneurship (LCE) explained that since it began its program, LCE has mentored and groomed over 80 entrepreneurs and the startup businesses have created a total of over 120 direct and 360+ indirect jobs. The combined annualized revenues of the startups based on last month’s figures is approaching over $1 million. These startups have also raised over $1 million in investment from local and foreign investors. Moreover, the combined valuation of the businesses at which these startups have raised money at, or have had investor term sheets offered, is over $7 Million.
It was followed by a presentation on investment opportunities in Pakistan by Raza Saeed, CEO Pakwheels and a segment of entrepreneurial success story by Zaiem Shahid, representing a LCE alumni startup, MARO Tandoors. Later, Barrister Ahmed Uzair of Ahmed Uzair & Co briefly elaborated on the term sheets of the startups. The pitches presented by the ten passionate startups graduating from LCE were the highlight of the event.
Speaking about the summit, Yusuf Hussain, CEO Daul Matrix Corporation said:
The LCE Summit was undoubtedly the best formatted and organized pitch event I have attended in the country, with its high energy and impactful content. The pitches were substantive yet brief, and the attendance and networking opportunity were an added bonus.
Sharing his thoughts on the positive response from the investor community, Khurram Zafar, Executive Director LCE said:
The overwhelming interest of investors in startups working on innovative, knowledge economy business models at LUMS Center for Entrepreneurship is a testament to the efforts of our budding entrepreneurs. Over 50 investors showed intent to bring upwards of $4M to the table and now it’s up to the entrepreneurs to capitalize on this interest and continue to build and grow their businesses.
LUMS Center for Entrepreneurship is welcoming its fourth batch of startups in the second week of October.
The practice should be copied by other universities also…
This is excellent step taken by LUMS.
Excellent LUMS