DigiBook and Creative 3D Printers Pvt Limited, two start-ups associated with the Shahjehan S. Karim Incubation Centre (SSKIC) at the Institute of Business Management (IoBM) were declared as top ideas at the third edition of the National Idea Bank (NIB). They were presented with the awards by the President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, Dr. Arif Alvi, at a ceremony held at the President's house on Thursday, February 15, 2024 DigiBook topped the competition as the national winner whereas Creative 3D Printers Pvt Limited (for presenting their ‘3D Printed Medical Device’), an alumnus start-up at SSKIC's Cohort-I was ranked among the top 10 at the NIB grand finale. Both start-ups have been selected to visit Silicon Valley for mentorship and networking sessions to enhance and evolve their business idea. This event was organized by the National University of Technology (NUTECH) in collaboration with ASPIRE Pakistan.
The awards were presented to Aurangzaib Alamgir, Founder of Digibook and Entrepreneur in Residence at SSKIC-IoBM, and to Bilal Afridi, Co-Founder and COO of Creative 3D Printers Pvt. Limited. Founder and Director of Creative 3D Printers Pvt Limited, Atif Baig, an IoBM alumnus, was also present. The Co-founder of DigiBook, Rida Zainab, is also an IoBM alumna. The start-ups were accompanied by Mr. Raza Abbas, focal person of the National Idea Bank at IoBM, and the Head of Incubation at SSKIC-IoBM.
The SSKIC was established by IoBM’s Management with a vision to foster creativity and management skills among the youth as the Institute envisions 20% of its students becoming entrepreneurs. While addressing the occasion, President Dr Arif Alvi called for providing an enabling environment for youth to nurture their intellectual abilities and benefit from their innovative ideas for the country’s prosperity. “Pakistani youth are blessed with enormous potential, brilliant minds, and bright ideas; however, they needed an appropriate platform to transform their ideas into competitive and quality products to increase the country’s exports and reduce imports,” he remarked while addressing the season finale of the third edition of National Idea Bank.