Elevate Entrepreneurship has reached its final milestone, closing after two batches with a pitching competition that brought together graduates, judges and invited guests. The program was run by TiE Islamabad with support from S&P Global, and it ended with 109 graduates and more than 25 startup ideas developed and submitted. The organizers framed the outcome as broader than the pitches themselves. Over the course of the program, participants were guided through identifying opportunities, validating their ideas and refining their business models, with mentorship and conversations about building businesses running alongside the coursework. The competition gave those who had completed the program a chance to put their work in front of an evaluating panel, and the organizers congratulated the winning startups along with every participant who stepped up to pitch.
Elevate is a wider initiative with more than one track. Its career readiness vertical, run with S&P Global mentors and hosted at NIC Islamabad, saw 103 participants complete 18 sessions covering topics such as resume building, LinkedIn optimization, communication and networking. The entrepreneurship vertical followed a different path, offering participants practical insight from experienced founders and industry experts from S&P Global and TiE Islamabad, with the aim of helping them build the skills to turn ideas into businesses. The final pitching competition is the point where the second track meets its audience, since a business idea has to be explained, defended and measured against the views of people who have built companies themselves.
The judging panel consisted of Mansoor Ali, Hassan Zulfiqar, Sonia Javed and Zeeshan Ajmal, who evaluated the pitches and shared their insights with the participants. Mansoor Ali is Executive Director of TiE Islamabad. The Chief Guests were Murtaza Zaidi, Sayyed Ahmad Masud, Usman Nazir and Mujeeb Zahur, who joined the event to celebrate the entrepreneurial talent emerging through the initiative. Zaidi is CEO of Cybervision and a board member of TiE Islamabad, while Nazir is Director of Business Systems and Analysis at S&P Global. Having both a judging panel and a separate group of guests gave participants two kinds of feedback, with the judges scoring the pitches and the guests offering a wider view of the local entrepreneurial scene.
The organizers credited the people who ran the program behind the scenes. Sonia Javed led and managed the Elevate journey for TiE Islamabad, and Tehreem Arjman and Nuke N. from S&P Global provided continued coordination and support. TiE Islamabad thanked S&P Global for investing in emerging talent and entrepreneurship and for making the program possible alongside the chapter. The announcement did not name the winning startups, list prizes or say what follow up support the teams will receive, so the next step for the strongest ideas is still to be announced. What it does show is the scale of the program, with 109 graduates and more than 25 startup ideas from two batches, and a partnership between an industry sponsor and an established entrepreneurship network that the organizers hope is only the beginning for the founders who took part.
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