Episode nine of Perfect Pitch brought five Pakistani startups before a jury of leading investors and technologists, with EdTech platform Class Notes taking home the PKR 1 million prize. The show, an initiative of the Prime Minister’s Youth Programme, HEC and Hum TV Network, was hosted by Ahfar Rehman and judged by Faisal Aftab, Founder and CEO of Zayn VC and a Shark from Shark Tank Pakistan, Jehan Ara, recipient of the Tamgha e Imtiaz and Founder and CEO of Catalyst Labs, and Dr. Shoab Ahmed Khan, Chairman of CASE and CEO of CARE. Before the pitches began, the jury advised founders to remain confident, communicate clear product differentiation, respond honestly to questions, and keep their pitches concise.
The first pitch came from Sadaf Altaf Lohia of Super Women Pakistan, a femtech platform offering period and pregnancy tracking, menstrual education, sanitary pad vending machines and maternity kits. The company has generated PKR 2 million in two months from vending machines placed across corporate and educational branches, and judges suggested the team expand through business to business vending machine deals rather than pursuing direct consumer sales. Homism followed, with Usman Ehsan Sheikh presenting a prop-tech platform offering AR, VR and generative AI architectural walkthroughs for real estate developers and home builders. The company has generated $200,000 in total revenue across Pakistan, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and the US through a business to business focus on real estate developers, and judges suggested hiring dedicated business development staff to sustain that growth.
The third pitch came from Mudassir Aslam and Mehmood Liaquat of ReLife, a sustainability startup manufacturing fully recycled paper pencils, pens, color pencils and bags embedded with plantable seed capsules. The company has generated PKR 1.4 million in revenue at profit margins between 35 and 40 percent, running a factory in Lahore and focusing on corporate and school partnerships. Class Notes followed, with Ali Hilal Jaisha and Mashaal presenting an exam preparation platform serving more than 35 million students with standardized test notes, mock exams, adaptive AI practice tests and study guides for matric and intermediate students. The platform draws more than 15,000 daily active users, rising to 30,000 to 40,000 during exam periods, and judges urged the team to focus on capturing the large domestic Pakistani market before attempting expansion into the US or Europe. The final pitch came from Umer Idrees and Yazban Mahmood of Artemis UAV, an autonomous drone-in-a-box hardware and software startup built for industrial surveillance, security and hazard monitoring without a human pilot. Units start at PKR 3 million and come equipped with thermal and 30x optical zoom cameras, with discussion touching on firmware locking, video signal drop and how the company plans to differentiate itself in the market.
The episode also featured a success story on WonderTree, the gamified augmented reality therapy and special education platform founded by Muhammad Waqas and Muhammad Usman, along with an audience contest asking viewers to explain the term churn rate. In the grand finale, Project Director Abdullah Soomro joined the judges with the PKR 1 million cheque after an intense deliberation session, announcing Homism, led by Usman Ehsan Sheikh, as runner-up, before naming Class Notes, led by Ali Hilal Jaisha and Mashaal, as the winner of the episode. The result reflects the show’s focus this week on ventures addressing everyday needs at scale, with the jury rewarding an exam preparation platform already reaching tens of thousands of students during peak exam season.
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