ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s tech geniuses will have an opportunity to be part of an acceleration programme of a US University to mature their super tech-ideas.
The unique opportunity comes at APIthon Chapter 2, being organised in the first week of May, where the participants will compete with each other consuming APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) of the telecom companies, banks, ridesharing and booking services to come up with innovative applications.
The project expects the participants to come up with an upgraded or new service(s), by consuming partner companies’ APIs, in their existing or new app and/or revenue streams. “The participants would be tasked with consuming APIs in the categories of banking, telecom, ticketing, and ridesharing. The event offers lots of incentives for the participants,” said Abbas Ali Khan, managing director of the Abacus Consulting, while unveiling APIthon II.
Among many prizes, APIthon will provide the winners an opportunity to book a berth in the Draper University of the Silicon Valley in California where they will hone their skills under the mentorship of international application developers and business leaders, he said. Also, IGNITE as a major partner of the event will review the ideas emerging at APIthon, and will help the winners and the participants mature their ideas and get seed funding.
At APIthon Chapter 1, more than 300 tech wizards from across the country had applied in January at the National Incubation Centre of the Lahore University of Management Sciences out of which only 20 teams were selected to participate. APIthon was a great success in terms of participation of the intelligent lot. For APIthon II, “we’ve won the strategic partnership and these premium partnerships will establish new trends in the API-oriented digital economy in Pakistan,” Abbas Ali said.
He said that such events should be held by other well-established companies too as a corporate social responsibility so that the tech-savvy youth could get a level-playing platform to exhibit their skills. “World’s most successful ventures were conceived in such positive competitions; such competitions, in fact, create an atmosphere of cooperation for both the application developer and the company. The end result is win-win for the developer, the company, and the end consumer,” he concluded.