Ecosystem Reports
Comprehensive landscape analyses of the Pakistani startup ecosystem.
KP Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Report (KPEER) 2021
The digitization of the economy is perhaps the fastest way to accelerate
economic growth in an emerging economy like Pakistan, as exemplified by other
countries in the Asia Pacific.13 Currently, Pakistan is one of the least digitally
connected countries in the world. Positioned at 76th/100 countries,14 it falls
in the last quartile of index countries overall and ranks 24th out of 26 Asian
countries. With a growing young population and increasing digital literacy, the
country is well-positioned to play an important role in the global economy in
the coming years. To that end, national and provincial policymakers, including
the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA), are helping increase access
to high-quality internet connectivity and digital services, vis-a-vis cultivating
the entrepreneurial spirit.
Pakistan Startup Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Report (PSER) 2016
In 2014, Invest2Innovate released the first Pakistan
Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Report (PEER), which mapped
the entrepreneurial landscape and detailed the challenges
entrepreneurs, investors, and other stakeholders faced in
Pakistan. Given the proliferation of startup activity in Pakistan
since 2014 (as well as support players that have since closed
operations), this is an updated version of the report for 2016,
which serves not only to detail the growing landscape but also
to showcase potential opportunities and the continuing
challenges in the country.
In the past several years, Pakistan’s
volatile political and security
environment has negatively
affected the investor and
entrepreneurship climate, with
outside investors wary of entering
the market. Entrepreneurs in the
country often face major regulatory
hurdles in sustaining and building
their businesses, and the opaque
environment acts as a deterrent for
investors.
Despite these many issues, there
has been some progress. In 2016,
Bloomberg declared the Pakistan
Stock Exchange (KSE 100) as the
best of the Asian markets, and the
fifth-best performing stock index in
the world.