UberPITCH 2018, a nationwide competition to select startups with the most compelling ideas resulted in one national winner – Xylexa Labs – and four provincial winners. The winners picked from a pool of over 300 participants across Pakistan.
The final round saw 10 startups pitching their ideas during an in-car trip with industry leaders Erum Rabbani – Country Head, Australia Awards Pakistan, Yusuf Hussain – CEO Ignite, Zouhair A. Khaliq – Co-founder, Teamup and Safee Shah – GM Uber, Pakistan.
Talking on the competition’s conclusion, Safee Shah said, “At Uber, we stand for more than getting people from point A to B. We are passionate about innovation and we was excited about nurturing young entrepreneurs to avail the opportunity and present their innovative ideas and heard. UberPITCH is our way of making things happen for Pakistan”.
“UberPITCH connected young, aspiring entrepreneurs with mentors and potential investors. Now, the winners will get a chance to further develop their ideas under the guidance of technology experts at Uber and National Incubation Centers”, he added.
Now, Xylexa Labs will get to present their idea at the biggest digital event hosted by ArabNet in Dubai, while the four provincial winners Cyber Security, Foona Review, Sunshine Funland and Aprus Technology will get free Uber credits and mentorship from the Uber team. They incubated at National Incubation Centers (NIC) in their respective cities.
Uber, the global smartphone app seamlessly connecting riders to drivers, launched applications for digital startups from all over Pakistan in August 2018, in partnership with Ignite, NICs in Islamabad, Peshawar, Quetta, Karachi and Daftar khawan in Lahore.
Following the application process, startups from five cities were selected to attend a two day training PITCH Camp by trainers Kamran Rizvi, Umair Jaliawala, and Waqar Ali. Upon learning ways to pitch, these startups went on to compete against other startups from their respective cities with a total of 10 startups coming out on top for the final round.
Startups also got to engage with vloggers Eva Zubeck, Taimoor Salahuddin aka. Mooroo and Muzzammil Hassan throughout the competition stages.
