NIC Karachi inducts 35 startups into its 16th cohort
The incubator picked the group from more than 700 applications and brings Orbit Ventures in as its international acceleration partner.
The National Incubation Center Karachi has inducted 35 startups into Cohort 16, its sixteenth intake, after receiving more than 700 applications, so fewer than one in 20 applicants made it. The centre held an orientation ceremony in Karachi to start the batch and announced the intake on 18 October.
NIC Karachi is funded by Ignite, the National Technology Fund under the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication. LMKT manages it in partnership with Lucky Landmark Private Limited. For this cohort Orbit Ventures is the international acceleration partner, which gives founders a route to regional investors and markets.
Who got in
The cohort spans fintech, health technology, education technology and food. The centre's published list names 24 of the 35 companies: Accountrix The Financial Consultants, Agahi, Aitebaar, Asaan Filer, Asan Parchi, Buddy Study, Campus Rides, Career Intelligence Labs, Coretech Innovation, DigiSlip, EcoPly, Eitemaad, EMERSYS, FoodLoot, Gray Scrubs AI, LikeSpaces, LooksInsight, Magitly, Mayaar, MedPixel AI, Momistan, PanelBot, PaveItGreen and and Payssenger. The list ends with an entry reading "Pixel (and more)", so the rest were not named.
What the startups receive
Participants get one on one mentorship, business coaching, a shared workspace, introductions to investors and partners, and international exposure through Orbit. Syed Azfar Hussain, NIC Karachi's project director, said the induction "marks another important milestone in our journey to strengthen Pakistan's startup ecosystem" and said the quality and diversity of ideas reflect growing entrepreneurial ambition.
Professor Noman Ahmed, pro vice chancellor of NED University of Engineering and Technology, praised the centre's role in turning ideas into real businesses and urged the founders to use the centre's resources. Ali Asim, a member of the governance committee, said NIC Karachi keeps supporting startups after incubation ends, with investors, networks and larger markets. The announcement adds that past incubatees have earned more than Rs13 billion in revenue and attracted more than Rs13 billion in investment.
The wider programme
NIC Karachi is one of eight National Incubation Centres, in Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar, Quetta, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad and Hyderabad. In figures the ministry gave the National Assembly, reported in August, the centres have incubated more than 2,250 startups since 2017, creating over 185,000 jobs and generating Rs36.3 billion in revenue. About 31 percent of those ventures are women led.
The same figures say the Spark and Elevate grant programmes and a Pakistan Venture Fund for growth stage capital are planned for the 2026 to 27 financial year. For comparison, Cohort 13 welcomed 40 startups from 618 applicants in March 2025.
