TiE Karachi Collaboration to Develop Angel Investment Industry

Sunnyvale, California, September 1, 2015 (Newswire.com) - ​​​The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) KARACHI CHAPTER, MIT ENTERPRISE FORUM OF PAKISTAN AND WADHWANI FOUNDATION USA COLLABORATE TO DEVELOP ANGEL INVESTMENT INDUSTRY

A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signing ceremony on behalf of the TiE Karachi Chapter, Wadhwani Foundation and MIT Enterprise Forum of Pakistan was held in the offices of Jaffer Business Systems on Monday, August 31, 2015 to promote discourse between startups and funders.

"TIE Karachi believes in the principles of the power of ideas to change the face of entrepreneurship and growing business through our five pillars; mentoring, networking, education, incubating and funding. TIE Karachi has been working to promote startups through its programs. The time is now right to introduce sources of angels funding and providing a credible structure for the benefit of both investors and startups. The collaboration of these groups would catapult Pakistan's economy."

The MOU was signed by Mr Veqar ul Islam, President, TiE Karachi Chapter (also CEO, Jaffer Business Systems & President, Touchpoint) and Mr Azhar Rizvi, Co-Chairman, MITEFP.

The MOU strongly validates the commitment of the three organizations to fulfill the objective of addressing the gap between demand and supply of credible funding sources for early stage investors, working towards bridging the gap between angel investors and aspiring startups, as well as promoting effective economic cooperation through undertaking training and capacity building activities.

TiE Karachi-MIT Enterprise Forum of Pakistan and Wadhwani Foundation USA will facilitate cooperative initiatives in the area of sustainable development of the entrepreneurial ecosystem of Pakistan to raise awareness and information sharing amongst key stakeholders. The yearlong program would include a series of discussions, workshops and conferences. At the end of this exercise the collaboration aims to create awareness of the Angel Investment opportunities in Pakistan as well as develop a credible high-level road map for developing this industry. Also, there are plans to showcase a great variety of talent, ideas and startups via an expo and invite investors to create an angel investment fund.

 “With the startup culture maturing in Pakistan and several foreign and local investments successfully being made in entrepreneurial ventures. But with the maturity of the ventures, to now take them to the next level, a formalized structure and roadmap needs to be developed to address funding gaps in the venture life cycle of the startup.  We feel this is the right time to developing and nurturing an Angel Investor Industry in Pakistan.”, said Mr. Azhar Rizvi, Co-chairperson of MITEFP.

Mr Veqar-ul Islam, President of TIE Karachi added, “TIE Karachi believes in the principles of the power of ideas to change the face of entrepreneurship and growing business through our five pillars; mentoring, networking, education, incubating and funding.  TIE Karachi has been working to promote startups through its programs. The time is now right to introduce sources of angels funding and providing a credible structure for the benefit of both investors and startups. The collaboration of these groups would catapult Pakistan’s economy.”

The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) – Karachi Chapter is a global not-for-profit network dedicated to the advancement of entrepreneurship. The Chapter is dedicated to the virtuous cycle of wealth creation and giving back to the community.

MIT Enterprise Forum of Pakistan (MITEFP) is a not for profit organization, formed under the laws of Pakistan which is totally dedicated to fostering entrepreneurship and innovation in Pakistan.

MITEFP is a joint venture partner of WOF in Pakistan, Through their partnership agreement with MITEFP, WOF agrees to come in as the knowledge partner for participating in the programs that TIE-MITEFP-WOF jointly co-host.

Detailed Profiles:
www.karachi.tie.org

TIE Karachi Profile

TiE - TiE is also recognised and known as Talent Ideas & Enterprise is a non profit organisation. The objective is to promote entrepreneurship and that we fulfil through mentoring, networking, education, incubating and funding.

To date, TiE has around 12,000 members, 20+ TiEcons (flagship conference) per year, 61 chapters, 18 countries, 25+ million angel investments, 150+ successful IPOs, 75+ angel invested companies and 100+ events per month. 

The TiE Karachi Chapter enjoys the largest network of ambassadors, entrepreneurs and senior corporate professionals in Pakistan. TiE Karachi Chapter has been operating since over a decade now and it's moved to multiple high profile individuals who have been passionate enough to make it what it is today.  Today the Chapter is known to run its flagship conference TiEcon in its very own style that attracts the high profile entrepreneurs of the region. 

MIT Enterprise Forum of Pakistan

http://mitef-pakistan.org/aboutus.htm

MITEFP’s mission is to improve the economic well-being of the people of Pakistan through development of Entrepreneurship Promotion Program (EEP) for Pakistan. This is in line with MITEF’s global mission of promoting formation and growth of innovative and technologically-oriented companies through specialized executive education programs. Through these programs, the Forum provides networking, leadership opportunities, and life-long connections to MIT while showcasing MIT’s role in entrepreneurship to communities around the world.

MITEFP’s mission is to improve the economic well-being of the people of Pakistan through development of Entrepreneurship Promotion Program (EEP) for Pakistan. This is in line with MITEF’s global mission of promoting formation and growth of innovative and technologically-oriented companies through specialized executive education programs. Through these programs, the Forum provides networking, leadership opportunities, and life-long connections to MIT while showcasing MIT’s role in entrepreneurship to communities around the world.

MITEFP in partnership with OPEN (Organization of Pakistani Entrepreneurs), MIT Alumni of Pakistan and other Pakistani well-wishers works towards ensuring availability of a large pool of entrepreneurs, investors in individual capacity or working in groups and organizations, promotion of existing mechanisms, and creation of an enabling environment for entrepreneurship to flourish.

Wadhwani Foundation

http://wadhwani-foundation.org/initiatives/nen-pakistan/

Wadhwani Foundation’s flagship initiative, National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN) was launched in Pakistan in 2014 to provide a systematic and structured strategy towards building an entrepreneurial ecosystem in the country.

Over the last decade, NEN has demonstrated a highly successful model that promotes entrepreneurship through both creating and supporting entrepreneurs, and facilitating job creation in the process. With a network of over 600 colleges, 4000 mentors and 3200 faculty, NEN has resulted in 2,000 new startups and is now tracking 1,500+ new companies each year. The scalable model of NEN, its resources and IP are especially contextualized for emerging economies like Pakistan and deployment of these will facilitate development of entrepreneurship.