On March 25th, Ignite signed an agreement with PTCL and LMKT for the establishment of National Incubation Center in Hyderabad. CEO Ignite, Asim Shahryar Husain, signed the contracts with Naveed Khalid Butt, Group Chief Regulatory Officer PTCL for NIC Hyderabad at the Elsa Kazi Campus, University of Sindh. In the welcome address of the contract signing ceremony, CEO Ignite, Asim Shahryar stated that the establishment of new NICs would contribute to the development of Pakistan’s entrepreneurial culture. Speaking on the occasion, Group Chief Regulatory Officer PTCL Naveed Khalid commended the efforts being made by Ignite resulting in the rapid growth of in the IT and Telecom sector. He further said that the PTCL group is committed to playing a pivotal role in developing a Digital Pakistan.

The signing ceremony was also attended by Moqeem ul Haque, Group Chief Strategy & Transformation Officer PTCL, Ihsan Elahi GM Projects Ignite, Adeel Shaikh GM Corporate Affairs Ignite, and other officials from Ignite and PTCL.

NIC Hyderabad will focus on providing a platform to small and medium-sized enterprises and provide support in innovation and product development. The operational five NICs under Ignite have incubated more than 930 startups so far, raised funding of Rs. 10.4 billion, and generated revenue of Rs. 4.7 billion so far. After renovation work has been completed for NIC Hyderabad, it is expected to be launched by end of June 2022.