The Centre for Entrepreneurial Development, Innovation and Research at the Institute of Business Administration Karachi hosted the final pitches and jury evaluation of the Sindh Acceleration Program 2026, bringing the program to a close for its first cohort. Startups presented their business progress, growth strategies and future plans before an esteemed jury. The program began with 108 applications and ended with 15 startups on stage, a narrowing that shows how competitive the selection was for businesses from across the province.
Over the course of the program, the cohort received 296 hours of acceleration support. Together, the participating startups generated 123.3 million Pakistani rupees in revenue and created 116 jobs, figures that give a concrete sense of what the ventures achieved while taking part. The numbers matter because the program is aimed at businesses that already have customers and income and need help to grow, rather than at ideas still on paper. Jobs and revenue are the outcomes the program’s organizers have pointed to as the measure of whether acceleration translates into real economic activity for the province.
The final pitches gave the startups a chance to present their progress to a panel of evaluators and to receive feedback on how to take their companies forward. Presenting at the end of an acceleration program asks founders to show what has changed since they joined, from how they operate to how they plan to grow, and the jury’s questions test whether those changes hold up. The organizers thanked the jury members for their insights and feedback, as well as the mentors and trainers who contributed to the program through the months of support.
The program is backed by the Sindh Enterprise Development Fund and delivered with Sapphire Consulting Services, both of which were thanked for their continued support. Under the banner of From Sindh, For Sindh, the program focuses on startups from the province and aims to help them scale with local roots. With the cohort now having completed its final evaluation, the focus turns to how the 15 startups use the support and the connections they have made to keep growing, and to what the program’s first results mean for future cohorts across Sindh.
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