Telenor Pakistan has done all the required homework to launch its incubation services for Pakistani startups to primarily enable them with all sorts of technical solutions and to give them an access to Telenor’s support services, distribution channels and other business functions that startups may require in building and scaling-up their products and services.
According to details that we have received so far, Telenor’s Incubation center, or Incubation Lab, will not be a conventional incubation service, instead it will be a collaborative facility available to various incubators already operating in the country.
Telenor, through partnerships with incubators, will allow startups to get access to variety of tools and services, including payment solutions, sales and distribution network, support facilities, dev tools and other functions that Telenor consumes for its own core operations.
For the purpose, Telenor has already entered into working-arrangements with OPEN (Organization of Pakistani Entrepreneurs), TIE and Founders Institute to jointly grow the startup ecosystem in the country.
Irfan Wahab Khan, Deputy CEO of Telenor Pakistan, while speaking with ProPakistani, confirmed the plans and said that Telenor Pakistan is determined to play a role in nurturing and strengthening startups ecosystem in Pakistan.
“In addition to giving these startups an access to our assets, such as distribution channels, retail network, Telenor Pakistan has bundled a tool-kit with payment, location and other similar APIs, that will be made available to these selected startups”, explained Irfan Wahab Khan.
Irfan said that startups will be selected by Telenor Pakistan based on their business models and potential value that they would be able to add.
“Selected startups will be able capitalize Telenor’s experience in preparing their products and leverage the reach and access of Telenor’s assets with over 220,000 retail outlets, over 1,000 exclusive service centers and franchises, variety of payment solutions and big-data analytical tools that are exclusively available with Telenor Pakistan only”, said Irfan.
Without giving any specifics, Irfan confirmed that Telenor Pakistan would be open to operate under different business models and might inject capital in startups as well, depending on per case and per need basis.
We don’t have any details on the launch date of Telenor’s incubation facility as of yet, but we can anticipate that it will be launched later this month during OPEN forum in Islamabad.
While startups are going to get the true benefits of this Incubation Service, Telenor will also be able to diversify its business to include parallel and strong revenue streams during years to come.
Expect more details on this whole development during next few weeks.