Pakistan’s startup ecosystem has been ranked fourth fastest growing in Asia Pacific for 2026, according to a Global Startup Ecosystem Index report cited in the announcement. StartupBlink’s own country ecosystem page for Pakistan separately reports that Pakistan’s ecosystem grew 62.2 percent in 2025 and currently ranks 67th globally, with more than 1,100 startups and over 63 million dollars in total tracked startup funding, figures that support the broader growth narrative even if the specific fourth place regional ranking traces back to the announcement itself rather than to a number this publication independently confirmed against the report’s full regional breakdown.
National Science and Technology Park has been cited as one contributor to this trajectory, operating as one of Pakistan’s largest innovation ecosystems and anchoring infrastructure that has helped move early stage ventures from research and ideation toward commercially viable businesses. Housed within NUST, NSTP has built a sector spanning incubation model, and separate reporting on NUST and NSTP hosting a National Workshop Balochistan delegation has similarly described the park as a hub where academia, industry, government, and entrepreneurs work together to move ideas toward market-ready solutions. It is worth noting that NSTP is one of several institutions contributing to Pakistan’s broader startup ecosystem, alongside the wider network of National Incubation Centers, Ignite funded programs, and privately backed accelerators operating across the country, and the ranking itself reflects the cumulative activity of this broader ecosystem rather than any single organization’s output.
According to figures shared by NSTP, the park has created more than 9,000 high-tech jobs to date, and startups supported through its programs have collectively raised PKR 20 billion in funding. More than 400 startups have reportedly graduated from NSTP to date, according to the same figures, a cumulative number that would position the park among the more productive incubation pipelines within Pakistan’s broader startup landscape, though these figures have not been independently verified against external data in this instance.
Broader independent coverage of Pakistan’s startup ecosystem lends useful context to these claims. A report titled The Rapid Rise of Pakistan Tech, produced by Dealroom and inDrive and covered separately by Business Recorder, found that Pakistan’s venture backed startups reached a combined enterprise value of 4 billion dollars in 2025, growing 3.6 times since 2020, with startups launched since 2015 increasing their combined value 11.3 times, a pace the report noted outpaced both the Bay Area and India over the same period. That same reporting has also noted that Pakistan has yet to produce a unicorn or a company with revenue above 100 million dollars, and that total venture capital raised since 2015 remains well below regional peers such as India. Taken together, Pakistan’s reported fourth place regional growth ranking and NSTP’s contribution to the broader ecosystem point to continued momentum, even as the country’s startup landscape continues to work through the gap between ecosystem level growth and large scale, globally competitive outcomes.
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