IT ministry plans to back 20 women led startups a year through WISE Lab
The proposed Women Innovation and Startup Empowerment Lab would also train 200 female micro entrepreneurs every year in digital tools.
Pakistan's Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication has outlined a plan to support at least 20 women led technology startups every year. ProPakistani reported the plan on 16 October, and TechJuice carried the same details.
The vehicle is the Women Innovation and Startup Empowerment Lab, known as the WISE Lab. Both outlets describe it as a proposal, not a confirmed programme. The ministry also plans to train 200 female micro entrepreneurs a year in digital tools, reaching customers and online marketplaces.
The plan targets three barriers: limited skills, thin business networks and weak institutional support. TechJuice adds that the aim is to help women shape business ideas, test their commercial viability and build lasting tech ventures.
How the lab was set up
The idea is not new. In October 2025 ProPakistani reported that Ignite, the National Technology Fund under the same ministry, had issued a request for proposals for a firm to build and run the lab. The plan then was an incubation space of 8,000 to 10,000 square feet in Islamabad, with room for at least 20 startups at a time.
That earlier report also said up to five high performing startups a year could receive grants of up to Rs2 million, and that bootcamps would run in every province, Gilgit Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir. It cited figures showing that 24.5 percent of Pakistani women are in the labour force and that 1 percent are entrepreneurs, against 21 percent of men.
The new reports do not name an official, give a start date or confirm which of the 2025 details still apply. The grant amounts in particular come only from the earlier report.
Reported from coverage in ProPakistani and TechJuice, with background from ProPakistani's October 2025 report.
