WISE Lab has extended appreciation to the leadership of Fatima Jinnah Women University, including Vice Chancellor Professor Doctor Bushra Mirza, Doctor Hashaam Akhtar, Director of the Office of Research, Innovation and Commercialization, and the FJWU-BIC team, for partnering to advance women led entrepreneurship. The collaboration between the two organisations gave students at the women’s university direct access to WISE Lab’s incubation expertise through a structured competitive event.
This collaboration was reflected in the University Level Pitching Competition 2026, which attracted one hundred and eleven startup applications and featured fifty six pitching teams, giving a substantial number of FJWU students the opportunity to present their business ideas in a competitive format. The scale of participation, with more than a hundred applications narrowed down to over fifty pitching teams, reflects strong engagement from the university’s student body in entrepreneurial activity.
WISE Lab contributed to the competition through its Project Director, Muneaza J. Durrani, and Program Manager Incubation, Salman Ahmed, both of whom served on the jury panel evaluating the pitching teams. Their involvement gave FJWU students direct exposure to evaluators with dedicated incubation and startup development experience, offering feedback informed by WISE Lab’s broader work supporting women led ventures beyond the university setting.
The partnership between WISE Lab and FJWU reflects a broader strategy of connecting incubation organisations with academic institutions specifically serving women, given FJWU’s status as a women’s university. This kind of targeted collaboration allows WISE Lab to reach a concentrated pool of women students who may be considering entrepreneurship, complementing its other recent partnerships including its collaboration with Pakistan Single Window’s Khadijah Programme aimed at helping women entrepreneurs access export markets.
The event was supported by Ignite National Technology Fund, Ministry Of IT and Telecommunication, JazzWorld, Mobilink Bank, and Change Mechanics, reflecting the institutional network backing WISE Lab’s ongoing programming. Together, WISE Lab and FJWU described their continued work as building stronger pathways for women to transform ideas into scalable enterprises, adding to WISE Lab’s broader portfolio of initiatives aimed at expanding entrepreneurial opportunities for women across Pakistan.
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