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Pakistan over the last decade has seen large investment in the IT (Information Technology) infrastructure, deregulation in the telecom sector, privatization and investment in the banking sector. This has resulted in tremendous opportunities and growth in the Information Technology sector. The Bright and Innovative entrepreneurs, of Pakistan are attempting to capitalize on these opportunities and have setup hundreds of companies. Today, the overall number of local IT firms, as per Pakistan Software Export Board and Pakistan Software Houses Association, is over 500 with their revenues growing at an annual rate of 40%.
However, these entrepreneurs have a very difficult time in growing their ventures, due to lack of funding, mentorship and contacts. TAN (Tech Angel Network) the first Angel Network in Pakistan; aims to tackle these problem by providing mentoring to these entrepreneurs and then introducing them to high net worth individuals (angels, from whom they may be able to get funding, mentoring and access to contacts.
The main reason for lack of funding is that in Pakistan Entrepreneurial Eco-System is not developed and the financing life cycle, which exists in developed countries, is non existent here. Whereas, in countries having a developed Entrepreneurial Eco-System financing of organizations goes through a well defined financing life cycle which normally includes some or all of the followings rounds:
- Founders, Family and Friends (FFF) (US $ 25,000 to 100,000)
- Individual Angels (US $ 100,000 to 500,000)
- Angel Networks (US $ 500,000 to 2 Millions)
- Early and Later Stages VC (Venture Capitalist) (US $ 2 Millions and up)
- Institutional Equity
Angels and champions of TAN consist of high profile entrepreneurs of international and local repute who have established a large number of successful ventures internationally and locally. These include such luminaries as Mr. Ken Morse, MD MIT Entrepreneurship Center; Mr. Bill Aulet, Senior Lecturer at MIT Entrepreneurship Center; Mr. Hussain Dawood, Chairman Dawood Group (corporate legend of Pakistan); Mr. Farrokh Captain, Chairman Captain Industries, and Chairman MIT Enterprise Forum of Pakistan (MITEFP); Mr. Zohair Khaliq, President Mobilink, Mr. Imran Sayeed, Financial Services & Insurance (FSI) practice for Keane; Dr. Zahir Ali Syed, Co-Chair MIT Enterprise Forum of Pakistan (MITEFP), Mr. Azhar Rizvi, Vice Chair MIT Enterprise Forum of Pakistan (MITEFP), Mr. Monis Rahman, Chairman and CEO of Naseeb Networks; Mr. Naeem Zafar, founding partner of Concordia Ventures, Mr. Shuja Keen, Head Global Business Development, TRG, Mr. Naeem Zamindar, Mr. Yusuf Jan, CEO Mixit etc.
We are in the process of building the Entrepreneurial System of Pakistan and CAN is one element of this system as can be seen from the following diagram:
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