National Incubation Center Islamabad recently welcomed Ibrahim Hafeez of ANFA VC, a member of Pakistan Global Alumni Network, alongside PGAN Head of Programme Malik Muzammil Ali Khan, for a closer look at the founders and businesses growing within its ecosystem. Hafeez brings a notable investing track record to the visit, having recently joined ANFA, a generalist multistage fund based in New York and London, after a run as principal at Griffin Gaming Partners, one of the world’s largest gaming-focused venture capital firms, where he led or supported more than 30 investments and helped deploy over 150 million dollars across game studios, platforms, and gaming infrastructure, work that earned him recognition in Forbes’ US Games 30 Under 30 Class of 2026.
During the visit, Hafeez met with startups across NIC Islamabad, heard directly from founders about their products, growth journeys, and ambitions, and explored the opportunities and challenges they face while building from Pakistan. Given his background spanning both consumer gaming investment and now a broader generalist mandate at ANFA, Hafeez’s perspective offered founders exposure to an investor whose frame of reference extends well beyond Pakistan’s domestic venture landscape, shaped instead by deal flow across emerging markets including Turkey and the Middle East.
For NIC Islamabad’s founders, conversations like this create a direct opportunity to engage with an investor, understand different perspectives on building scalable businesses, and learn what it takes to prepare for long-term growth beyond their next immediate milestone. NIC Islamabad framed bringing investors into the ecosystem as an important part of creating stronger connections between founders and the wider investment community, arguing that these interactions give investors a closer understanding of the businesses being built locally while giving startups access to capital, perspective, networks, and strategic value in return.
The visit was facilitated through Pakistan Global Alumni Network’s member network, with NIC Islamabad expressing appreciation for PGAN’s role connecting the center to investors like Hafeez who might otherwise have limited direct visibility into Pakistan’s incubation ecosystem. The center said it looks forward to welcoming more investors, industry leaders, and ecosystem partners going forward, continuing a pattern of diaspora-linked introductions that has increasingly shaped how Pakistani incubation centers access global investor networks this year. The visit was supported by Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication, Tech Destination Pakistan, and Ignite National Technology Fund.
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