The government backed National Incubation Centre network has incubated more than two thousand two hundred and fifty Pakistani startups since its launch in 2017, generating Rs36.3 billion in cumulative revenue and creating over one hundred and eighty five thousand jobs across the country. These figures were shared by Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication Shaza Fatima Khawaja with the National Assembly, offering a detailed picture of the scale the NIC network has reached nearly a decade after its establishment.
According to Khawaja, startups incubated through the NIC network have also attracted Rs34.7 billion in local and international investment, reflecting the network’s role not only in supporting early stage business development but also in helping ventures secure the capital needed to scale. Khawaja highlighted that the government continues to provide financial and technical assistance through Ignite National Technology Fund, which has played a central role in empowering technology based startups across the network’s eight operational centres.
Women’s participation within the network has also grown, with women currently leading approximately thirty one percent of incubated startups, equivalent to roughly seven hundred ventures. This figure points to a meaningful presence of women led businesses within Pakistan’s broader technology and startup ecosystem, an area that has continued to receive specific policy attention as part of the government’s broader entrepreneurship strategy.
Ignite has established eight National Incubation Centres operating in Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar, Quetta, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, and Hyderabad, each offering free incubation facilities alongside mentorship, co-working spaces, and specialised laboratories. Startups within the network also gain access to legal and financial advisory services, business development support, and investor networks. The government recently expanded this infrastructure further, with a ninth centre commencing operations in Sialkot in July 2026, extending geographically distributed access to startup support across the country.
To address financing constraints at different stages of startup development, the government has introduced several dedicated funding instruments. The Pakistan Startup Fund offers early stage startups an equity free grant of up to thirty percent of a total investment round, while the Ignite Acceleration Programme provides seed stage startups with up to Rs5 million in seed funding through NICs in Islamabad, Lahore, and Karachi. Two additional programmes, Spark and Elevate for fourth industrial revolution technologies and the Pakistan Venture Fund for growth stage startups, are scheduled to launch during the 2026-27 fiscal year, with the most recent round of Pakistan Startup Fund grants having already selected three new startups.
Beyond direct funding, the Ministry of IT and Telecommunication has pursued a broader strategy combining incubation, seed funding, venture capital, and market access to build a self-sustaining startup ecosystem. The ministry established Centres of Excellence in gaming and animation, which became operational in November 2025, aimed at developing specialised talent within the creative technology sector. Similarly, the National AI Innovation Hub, established under the National AI Policy 2025, supports artificial intelligence startups by providing computing power, structured development pathways, and a marketplace for showcasing and commercialising AI solutions, reflecting the government’s continued focus on emerging technologies, women led entrepreneurship, and investment driven scaling across Pakistan’s startup ecosystem.
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