Five amazing Pakistani entrepreneurs you didn't know about


Pakistanis who are making the country proud in the fields of science, technology, and entrepreneurship

There is no denying that Pakistan has proud geniuses and humanitarians that are unmatchable. Despite lack of resources, the Pakistani youth continue to break barriers and achieve unprecedented success.

Slowly and steadily, young entrepreneurs are entering the science and technology sector and cementing their foothold in the industry. The entrepreneurs are inventing new products and building brands which focus on human development. 

Let’s take a look at five inspiring young Pakistani entrepreneurs who are changing the game with their out-of-box thinking and dynamic leadership qualities: 

Yahya Ali – Founder of Project 50 Kids

The 22-year-old high achieving student from FAST-NU has already taken a number of initiatives in the world of technology with a special focus on improving literacy among thousands of kids in the middle and lower middle class. Yahya began his extraordinary journey when he started teaching at Dar-e-Arqam school along with his friends Hamza Ali Sajjad and Moeez Zahid. They saw the void in the education system which led them to form a socio-technical enterprise called Project 50 Kids.

Yahya’s technology aims to educate children who have never had any experience with computers and are unaware of its significance in the modern world. Project 50 Kids makes it a point to teach them basic computer functions such as using Google for taking help from this technology to find meaningful answers. Their curriculum goes up to android development and advanced animation courses.

As of now, Yahya has arranged over 11 summer camps and 20 different workshops. Through these activities, he managed to reach out to 1,700 children in Lahore, Peshawar, Faisalabad, and Kanpur, teaching the basics of logic building and programming.

The savvy e-commerce siblings; Adnan and Adeel

Two brothers, 28-year-old Adnan Shaffi and 29-year-old Adeel Shaffi founded PriceOye in 2015. This platform allows for a price comparison for electronics in second and third-tier cities in Pakistan. This initiative from these siblings not only brought an immensely useful information tool to potential customers of electronics as well as retailers but also landed the Shaffis a spot in the Forbes 30-under-30 list.

Their platform uses data analytics to provide marketing information to retailers while finding the best deal for consumers. While e-commerce stores in Pakistan focus attention on first-tier cities like Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad, many have forgotten about lower-tiered cities, leading to a 20 percent increase in prices in those areas. Their website has had 805,000 visits in the past month, Forbes wrote.

Hamza Farrukh – Founder of Bondh E Shams

Another mention in the Forbe’s 2018 list, this 24-year-old Goldman Sachs banker set out to solve the global water crisis with a mere $150,000 startup capital loaned from a bank. His charity project, called Bondh-e-Shams—which translates to ‘droplet of sun’—delivers clean water to areas that previously did not have access to it. 

Farrukh’s project began as a college project to bring fresh water to one rural Pakistani village funded by a $10,000 Davis Project for Peace grant. However, it quickly grew into a mission to implement cost-effective, sustainable and maintenance-free clean water access for all rural Pakistanis, writes Forbes. 

Farrukh began Bondh-E-Shams—also known as The Solar Water Project—and developed a solar-powered water extraction and filtration system. Costing $8,000 (approx. one million Pak Rupees), it has a lifespan of 25 years and can service around 5,000 people per day.

Radha Mohanlal – CEO, Asaan Taleem

Radha Mohanlal is a force to be reckoned with when it comes to technology and innovation. Having endured the same difficulties faced by a significant part of the population when it comes to education, Mohanlal set out to resolve the problems of access to education. Having to travel several hours for just one lecture during her studies, she realized that the availability of technology could be used to resolve this issue.

She started a Facebook page by the name of Asaan Taleem through which she started giving educational and career-related counseling. College students could use this page as a medium to get their queries answered. Eventually, her efforts led her to become incubated at P@SHA’s incubation program, Nest I/O. That’s when her initiative took the form of a social enterprise and emerged in a more mature form.

"The project which started off as a small Facebook page has since grown to be a community of 2,000+ students and 160+ women tutors that are ready to correspond with students regarding their queries," wrote technology website Techjuice, which included Mohanlal in its list of 25-under-25 Pakistani in tech. 

Asaan Taleem is now also offering free tutorial-based video courses to college students.

Neha Chaudhry — Founder of Walk to Beat

Neha Chaudhry, a product designer by profession, and currently studying postgraduate marketing in the United Kingdom, has developed ‘Walk to Beat’—a walking stick for people suffering from Parkinson’s disease. Her late granddad, who suffered from Parkinson’s for 8 years, was one of the main initiatives for her invention.

‘Walk to Beat’ is a walking aid with an innovative technology installed in its handle, which provides a constant rhythm that can only be felt in the handle, not seen or heard. It is aimed to solve freezing and gait problems experienced by most Parkinson’s patients.

Originally from Lahore, Neha moved to United Kingdom for further studies and it there where she came up with this idea. Neha’s now has a company named after her innovative product, Walk a Beat Ltd.