South Asia Investor Review

Guest Post by Khurram Zafar I believe that the technology entrepreneurship ecosystem in Pakistan is at a tipping point! There are a number of factors at play that make Pakistan so ripe for both local and international investors looking to invest in the tech space: Quickly growing  internet adoption currently estimated to be  25 million internet users and 15 million mobile internet users ; Cheap smart phone devices  costing under $50 ; 3G  and  4G  rollouts; Massive amounts of marketing and media spend by companies like Rocket Internet, Schibsted, and Naspers that’s targeted to make Pakistani consumers comfortable transacting online; Development of platforms like  The Foundation  at  LUMS Center for Entrepreneurship  and  Plan9  that are supporting passionate entrepreneurs during their formative years; Slow but steady investments flowing into startups at seed (e.g.  Kima Ventures investment into Eyedeus Labs ...

Lahore-based Groopic and Islamabad-based Tunacode have been accepted to be part of this summer’s Blackbox Connect program in Silicon Valley. Founded by Pakistanis, both companies are start-ups with innovative products whose founding teams are looking to live, learn and network for two weeks at an Atherton mansion this summer from July 15 to 26, 2013.  These young entrepreneurs are a reflection of Pakistan's growing human capital . This year's summer program of Blackbox Connect is supported by Google. Groopic is an application that helps put the photographer back into photos with his or her buddies. Eyedeus, the company behind Groopic, emerged from the first batch of companies at Plan9 , the Punjab government’s incubator which is named after an operating system project at the Bell Labs in the 1980s. Tunacode specializes in optimizing complex software to graphic processing units (GPUs). The two Pakistani companies are among eight non-US start-ups selected to partic...