Fireside | Kalsoom Lakhani
An exciting opportunity to get into the minds of two brilliant investors was created when Kalsoom Lakhani, the founder of Pakistan’s first accelerator Invest2Innovate and co-founder of Pakistans first female-led VC fund, i2i Ventures, which supports startups and the broader entrepreneurship ecosystem in growth markets, was interviewed by the director of Kausar Group of Companies, Shoaib Zahid Malik.
i2i has been operating in Pakistan since 2011, and has accelerated 41 startups that have gone on to raise over $6.5M in funding (90% by female-led startups) and created over 1500 jobs in the country.
Kalsoom has trained young entrepreneurs, change-makers, and civil society leaders in Nepal, Cambodia, Ireland, Bangladesh etc. She has spoken at numerous venues, including the World Economic Forum, Aspen Ideas Festival, SXSW, the Global Entrepreneurship Summit, and the Global Entrepreneurship Congress, along with that in collaboration with World Bank, her company, i2i recently launched a complete report on Pakistan’s Startup Ecosystem.
During the fireside chat Kalsoom spoke about the main reason that motivated her to start her own investment fund. She says, “ I was amazed to see the phenomenal ideas that entrepreneurs in Pakistan had and I always believed that the next innovators just don’t exist in Silicon Valley they exist in Pakistan, Nigeria, Bangladesh and in other parts of the world”.
On her journey as an entrepreneur in Pakistan she faced many challenges and believes regulatory environment in Pakistan was one of the biggest challenges that she had to tackle. She further talked about the lack of trust that prevails in the country as everyone wants to protect their ideas and money.
Kalsoom Lakhani’s vision is, and has always been, to unleash an entrepreneur’s greatest potential and help startups in the best way possible! She is driven by the founders as she says, “How you, as a founder, think about growth is what attracts us. If you’re not thinking big, then how can we think something big for you”.
So if you are a high-growth, technology-enabled startup with operations based in Pakistan, send your pitch deck to ventures@invest2innovate.com and include:
- Attraction
- Market opportunity
- Size of the opportunity
- Competitive landscape
Kalsoom’s i2is strength lies in developing relationships with people and building a community that empowers one another that includes facilitating women change makers in every best possible way to help them create, share and grow together!
You can find this video and other interviews with entrepreneurs on our Youtube channel.
