KARACHI: The founder of a Pakistani startup participating in a leading international reality TV show, which allows businesses to pitch innovative ideas to prominent investors, said Friday the appearance of early-stage companies from her country on such global platforms can strengthen the local startup ecosystem.
Her remarks came after the latest episode of “Meet The Drapers” featuring Pakistani entrepreneurs, marking the first time in seven seasons that the country was represented in the competition hosted by venture capital icon Tim Draper. The show offers contestants the opportunity to compete for funding and exposure, with the audience also able to invest in promising startups.
Among the four Pakistani entrepreneurs featured this season is Maha Shahzad, the Karachi-born founder of BusCaro, a tech-based mobility startup offering transport solutions in Pakistan.
“We did our pitches in the [San Francisco] Bay Area, and then the Meet The Drapers team came down to Karachi where we picked iconic locations for the shoot,” she told Arab News, adding that she appeared on the program against the backdrop of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s mausoleum, as she felt it symbolized Karachi.
“For the overall ecosystem, it is important for Pakistani startups to be shown on international platforms,” she continued. “The media portrayal globally of Pakistan and its businesses versus our reality is very different. So that exposure is very important.”
Pakistani startups gained significant traction in recent years, attracting record investments in 2021 and early 2022, particularly in e-commerce, fintech and mobility solutions. The surge generated optimism about the country’s emerging tech ecosystem, prompting the government to invest in the sector, introduce tax incentives and push for higher IT exports to mitigate economic challenges.
Shahzad, a Pakistani-American, has been running BusCaro for two and a half years, offering a bus-hailing service across Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad. Her company partners with businesses to facilitate employee commutes while also allowing individual users to access its services.
She and the other three Pakistani entrepreneurs joined “Meet The Drapers” through Paklaunch, a Pakistani community platform that connects investors, professionals and startups globally. Paklaunch facilitated the show’s entry into the country, leading 100 local startups to compete. After several rounds of shortlisting, four Pakistani companies reached the pitching stage, with the episode filmed during a conference in San Francisco last October.
“A show like this is obviously helpful for potential fundraising and adds a lot of value to any business,” Shahzad said. “For me, it’s been an honor to meet Tim Draper and be a part of the show more than anything else.”
Unlike other reality shows, “Meet The Drapers” primarily focuses on tech-based startups with mass-scale potential. Entrepreneurs from around the world participate, with season seven featuring 44 contestants from Abu Dhabi, Paris, London, New York and Pakistan, among others.
Participants pitch live to a panel of celebrity guest judges for a $1 million grand prize, with the second and third-place winners receiving $500,000 and $250,000, respectively.
Another Pakistani startup, a streaming platform called Myco, is also competing this season. Founded by Islamabad-born Umair Masoom Usmani, who moved to Dubai and launched the business there in 2021, Myco operates out of the UAE but considers Pakistan its largest market in terms of users, revenue and consumer base.
Myco also secured the exclusive rights to stream “Meet The Drapers” in Pakistan, with the first episode airing on January 17, 2025.
“When I presented my pitch on the show, Tim Draper expressed his support for Myco and asked us to stream ‘Meet The Drapers’ in Pakistan,” Usmani told Arab News over the phone on Friday.
The startup enhances entertainment through live streaming, integrating a reward system for both consumers and advertisers.
“It was a big win for us to get the rights to stream the show,” he continued. “The opportunity to meet Tim Draper was huge, as was the connection built with the ‘Meet The Drapers’ team. It will hopefully be a long-term relationship.”
Usmani hopes to make it to the finale based on consumer votes. The six finalists, to be featured in the April 18 episode, will include three chosen by judges and three selected through public voting.
The other two Pakistani startups featured in the “Meet The Drapers” episode include Laam, a fashion platform connecting consumers with brands and designers, and Reup Cycle, an app promoting sustainability by converting used plastics into industrial materials.
