NIC Lahore has confirmed the investor lineup for its Pakistan AI-Powered Virtual Investment Summit 2026, scheduled for July 15, revealing a panel of global investors that brings together venture capital, angel investment, and corporate venture perspectives from the Gulf, Europe, and the broader international investment community. The confirmed investors include Ahmed Altheney an, Chairman of Tech Horizons Venture, Marcel D, representing the European Business Angel Network known as EBAN, and Taha Syed M Hussain, Head of Strategic Venture Capital Investments at Aramco Ventures, a combination that gives Pakistani founders pitching at the summit access to a genuinely diverse and internationally significant investor audience within a single virtual event.
Ahmed Altheney an’s involvement as Chairman of Tech Horizons Venture brings Gulf-region investment experience and a track record in supporting high-potential startups across the technology ecosystem. His expertise in venture building, investment strategy, and startup growth represents the kind of hands-on investor profile that goes beyond capital deployment into active portfolio support, making his participation at the summit valuable not only as a potential source of investment for pitching startups but as a source of direct and experienced guidance on what it takes to build a technology company capable of competing at an international level. For Pakistani founders with ambitions in Gulf markets, his presence creates a direct line to investor relationships that would otherwise require significant time and effort to cultivate independently.
Marcel D’s participation as a representative of EBAN, the European Business Angel Network, introduces a distinct and complementary dimension to the summit’s investor composition. EBAN is one of the most established angel investment networks in the world, representing the interests and activities of early-stage investors across Europe with a membership that spans individual angels, angel networks, and early-stage funds across multiple countries. His inclusion gives Pakistani startups visibility within the European early-stage investment ecosystem, where appetite for emerging market technology ventures has been growing as European angels seek differentiated deal flow beyond their home markets. His insights into what European investors look for when evaluating startups from outside their familiar geographies will be directly applicable to founders who are thinking about positioning their ventures for international capital.
Taha Syed M Hussain’s role as Head of Strategic Venture Capital Investments at Aramco Ventures represents perhaps the most strategically significant investor presence at the summit. Aramco Ventures, the venture capital arm of Saudi Aramco, one of the world’s largest companies by revenue and market capitalisation, has been building a portfolio of technology investments that align with its parent company’s strategic priorities around energy transition, digital transformation, and industrial technology. His participation signals that the summit has attracted attention from institutional corporate venture capital of a calibre that few Pakistan-focused investment events have previously been able to draw, and his expertise in identifying and scaling high-impact technology companies gives pitching founders access to a quality of investor feedback that is difficult to find anywhere on the domestic circuit. The summit takes place on July 15 from 2:30 PM to 5:30 PM Pakistan Standard Time as a virtual event, supported by Ignite, the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication, Pakistan Software Export Board, NETSOL Technologies, HBL, Plug and Play Tech Center, Daftarkhwan, Beaconhouse National University, and University of Engineering and Technology Lahore.
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