The stage is set for the Pegasus Tech Ventures Startup World Cup Pakistan National Grand Finale at Suleman Dawood School of Business, Lahore University of Management Sciences, on September 16, 2026. Startup World Cup operates as a global conference and competition bringing together top startups, venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, and world-class technology executives, with regional winners from around the world eventually converging on a single grand finale in San Francisco, giving Pakistan’s national winner a genuine shot at international visibility well beyond the domestic competition circuit.
After intense regional qualifying rounds held across the country, the top founders remaining in contention will present their solutions to an elite jury panel of industry titans, investors, and venture leaders. The panel includes Umair Javed, chief executive officer of Tkxel, Ahsan Jamil, founder and general partner of sAi Venture Capital, Zeshan Qureshi, group chief marketing officer of Habib Rafiq Engineering and chief operating officer of Capital Smart Innovations, and Usman Sheikh, investor and chairman of OZI Group. Assembling judges from operating, investing, and engineering backgrounds gives the panel a genuinely cross-functional lens on the founders pitching, rather than evaluation weighted too heavily toward any single discipline.
Iftikhar Hussain, director of Startup Grind Lahore and chief executive officer of Transforming Hub, will host the event, bringing continuity from Startup Grind Lahore’s broader role cultivating Lahore’s entrepreneurial community through recurring events and mentorship programming. His hosting role connects this national finale to a longer running local ecosystem infrastructure rather than treating the event as a standalone one-off competition disconnected from the city’s existing entrepreneurship network.
The stakes for the evening extend well beyond a single night’s recognition, with the eventual national winner earning the right to represent Pakistan on the global stage in San Francisco, competing against national champions from other countries for international investment and visibility. Interested attendees can register through this link to attend the grand finale. The event continues Startup World Cup’s ongoing presence in Pakistan, which has run regional qualifying competitions in cities including Lahore as part of its broader effort to surface high-potential startups from emerging markets and connect them to Pegasus Tech Ventures’ global network of investors.
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