Great ideas become impactful ventures with the right guidance, experience, and mentorship, and IU CORE is bringing together an accomplished panel of mentors for its Cohort 4 to empower aspiring entrepreneurs with valuable insights, strategic direction, and industry expertise as they turn their ideas into meaningful impact. The mentor lineup draws from a fairly diverse range of professional backgrounds, spanning e-commerce, healthcare-adjacent networking platforms, venture investment, robotics, law, logistics, and business coaching, giving Cohort 4 founders exposure to perspectives that extend well beyond any single industry vertical.
The mentor panel includes Hamza Abdul Rauf, CEO of Telemart, and Faiza Yousuf, Co-Founder and CPO of CaterpillHERs, alongside M. Taqi Hyder, Manager Investments at Accelerate Prosperity, who brings a direct investor’s perspective to the cohort’s mentorship structure. Anas Niaz, Founder and CEO of BIONIKS, contributes deep tech and robotics expertise, while S. M. Ali Jafri, Advocate and Head of Chambers at Jafri and Abidie Solicitors, offers founders access to legal guidance that early-stage ventures often underprioritise until they encounter a formal legal or compliance challenge.
Rounding out the panel, Muhammad Salik Khan, Founder and CEO of QUANRIO, and Rafiq Malik, Co-Founder and COO of Bykea, bring operational and scaling experience from ventures that have grown into established players within their respective markets, with Bykea in particular representing one of Pakistan’s more recognisable ride-hailing and logistics platforms. Sheikh Hammad Amjad, working as a Business Therapist and Startup Mentor, adds a more founder-wellbeing oriented dimension to the panel, while Muhammad Furqan Karim Kidwai, Co-Founder and CEO of Plouton AI, rounds out the group with a current founder’s perspective on building within the AI space.
Together, this mentor panel’s combined expertise is expected to help shape bold ideas, strengthen entrepreneurial thinking, and inspire the next generation of innovators moving through IU CORE’s Cohort 4 programme. The initiative reflects Iqra University’s continued investment in translating academic entrepreneurship training into direct access to experienced founders and industry professionals, turning ideas into impact through the combination of experience, mentorship, and innovation that has come to define the university’s approach to supporting its student and early-stage founder community.
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