Dr. Umar Saif, the acting Minister of Telecom and Information Technology, stated that the government has approved BridgeStart, a programme that would fund 100 businesses per year for acceleration or incubation at any of the top 40 global accelerators and incubators.
Fantastic news for Pakistani entrepreneurs hoping to go internationally. We’ve approved a new programme called BridgeStart, Dr. Saif said in a platform X social media post. It will fund 100 businesses annually to be incubated or accelerated in any of the top 40 incubators or accelerators globally.
YCombinator, Capital Factory, and 500 Startups are examples of well-known incubators that have helped startups grow quickly by connecting them to more established financing sources and ecosystems. Dr. Saif based this observation on his observations of Plan9 and the Eight National Incubation Centres (NIC).
He did concede, though, that a lot of companies were unable to take part in these programmes because they lacked the funding for airfare, hotel, and other costs related to programmes conducted overseas.
Dr. Saif clarified that the government would give up to Rs 5 million through BridgeStart to entrepreneurs that meet the requirements of these top 40 international programmes, significantly advancing their aspirations to go global.