Telenor Pakistan sees digital technology as a perfect enabler to empower societies. The company has been striving unremittingly to trigger a digital revolution in the country that will bring ease, access and enablement to people.
Aiming to empower Pakistan through digitalization, Telenor has developed a comprehensive digital ecosystem that offers technology-enabled gadgetry to facilitate digital penetration across all economic tiers. This ranges from delivering top-notch data services to creating an environment to develop and strengthen the process of digital inclusion through accelerator programs for startups. Telenor Pakistan has successfully developed an ecosystem, in the form of Telenor Velocity that truly champions the cause of enabling young entrepreneurs for scaling their startup ventures.
Telenor Velocity:
Telenor Velocity is Telenor Pakistan’s digital startup accelerator which is one of the most sought after accelerators programs in the country. It identifies and enables promising entrepreneurs to materialize their startup ideas by using Telenor Pakistan’s scale and assets under expert mentorship.
The program has helped its startups reach out to millions of potential customers from the 40 million customer base of Telenor Pakistan, connect with more than 30 mentors and link startups with potential investors to raise funds. Last year, four of the most promising Telenor Velocity startups namely Shopsy.pk, MicroPower Labs, EcoEnergy, and Fori Mazdoori successfully landed a sizeable funding of more than $600,000. These startups not only helped the entrepreneurs carve out a better future for themselves but go on to create a positive impact in the society.
Golden Ticket for Pakistani Start-ups to a Global Platform:
Telenor provides an international platform called Digital Winners Asia (DWA) to startups that have been a part of its accelerator programs to pitch their ideas. Telenor Velocity is going to take two of its startups to participate in Digital Winners Asia Competition that is being held in partnership with SLUSH in Singapore, where they will compete with startups from Bangladesh, Thailand, Myanmar and Malaysia. Last year two startups from Velocity represented Pakistan on a regional level. This year, Artsy and MicroPower Labs will participate in this year’s competition.
This year, DWA has partnered with SLUSH and is expected to be even bigger than before. SLUSH is one of the world’s leading start-up event which aims to provide startups the platform to facilitate founder and investor meetings and to build up a worldwide startup community. This platform will provide the startups with access to SLUSH’s international clout and connect them to a global roster of investors, industry experts and international startup peers and help the young entrepreneurs grow.
Telenor Pakistan’s initiatives for youth empowerment and proliferation of technology have positively impacted the country’s socio-economic progress and inspired the youth to contribute towards the development of our society at large through digitalization.
