NIC Islamabad has announced the judging panel for its Acceleration Program Cohort 5, bringing together experienced ecosystem leaders to evaluate startups ready to move beyond incubation and into their next phase of growth. The judging round places particular weight on growth potential, business traction, scalability and the overall strength of each startup’s path forward, giving the panel a clear set of criteria for determining which ventures are genuinely ready to take the next step rather than simply continuing on their current trajectory.
The judging panel includes Faisal Shuja Khan, CEO of Ovex Technologies, Asim Ghaffar, Vice President of Engineering at 10Pearls Pakistan, and Adnan Faisal, CEO of Scale X. Also on the panel are Muhammad Ali Iqbal, President of Concave Agri, Ali Moeen Malik, Co-Founder of ezBike, and Shayan Yar, Project Director at NICAT. The panel brings together leadership from established technology firms, agriculture, mobility and a fellow incubation center, giving Cohort 5 founders feedback shaped by a genuinely varied set of industries rather than a single sector’s perspective.
NIC Islamabad framed the judging round around a specific distinction, noting that acceleration is not simply about moving faster, but about knowing where to go next and being ready to get there. This framing positions the judging process as less of a pass or fail evaluation and more of a readiness assessment, meant to identify which startups have both the ambition and the operational footing to handle a more intensive stage of growth support.
The Acceleration Program Cohort 5 continues to be supported by the Ministry of IT and Telecommunication Pakistan, Tech Destination Pakistan and Ignite National Technology Fund, alongside institutional backers including Fauji Foundation, Ufone 5G, Telenor 5G, Founder Institute, CyberVision International and CM. With the judging panel now in place, NIC Islamabad moves forward into the acceleration round itself, where founders will make their case for why their ventures are ready to take the next step in their growth.
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