CraveLab Pakistan, a currently incubated Hatch 8 startup founded by five female students from the NUST School of Health Sciences, has launched its first products, edible sand and edible chalk, at SugarLoop, with NSTP facilitating the startup’s launch through product placement. The launch marks a significant milestone for the student founded venture, moving its work from concept into an actual consumer facing product available for purchase.
The product launch helped the team move beyond the concept stage, engage with customers, gather feedback, and assess market interest, representing an important step toward building a market ready venture. This kind of direct customer engagement gives the founders real world data on how their products are received, information that is often more valuable at this stage than continued internal development without external validation.
With a vision rooted in nutrition, CraveLab plans to develop healthy edible alternatives for individuals affected by pica, a condition characterised by cravings to consume non-food items such as sand or chalk. The startup’s approach aims to provide safer and healthier choices for those affected by the condition, creating a positive social impact by addressing a specific health related need rather than pursuing a purely commercial food product concept.
The team has also earned national recognition, securing first position in Food Science and Technology at AFS Venture Spark, a national level competition held at MNS University Multan, along with a prize of PKR 100,000. This external recognition adds credibility to the venture beyond its incubation at NSTP, reflecting validation from an independent competitive platform focused specifically on food science innovation.
NSTP continues to support this kind of student led startup by providing opportunities to test, showcase, and introduce products to customers, with CraveLab’s product placement at SugarLoop reflecting the incubator’s practical, hands on approach to helping early stage ventures gain market exposure. Through its platform, mentorship, and opportunities, NSTP’s continued support for CraveLab and similar student founded startups reflects its broader mission of helping ideas developed within academic settings move toward genuine market readiness.
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