Country guide
Startup credits in Pakistan
A startup registered in Pakistan can apply to 1310 programs we track: 928 credit programs and 382 accelerators. 132 more are restricted to other countries, and they are named below.
Most credit lists are written for founders in San Francisco. They show you the same twenty programs everyone else sees, and you find out a US entity was required after an hour of reading and a rejected application.
This page is the other way round. It shows what a company registered in Pakistan can actually apply for, and it names the programs that are closed to you so you do not waste an evening on them.
What your entity needs to be
A Pakistani private limited company registered with SECP is enough for most of the programs below. A handful of the largest tiers want a US or UK entity, and those are listed separately. Incorporating in Delaware purely to chase credits is rarely worth it before you have revenue or a US customer base: the filing and compliance cost usually exceeds the credits you unlock.
Open to Pakistani startups
The largest programs with no country restriction blocking you.
- NKFIH Startup Factory Programme$5,000,000,000
National Research, Development and Innovation Office, Hungary
- Fonds de Soutien à l’Innovation$3,000,000,000
DER/FJ, Senegal
- CSI and Startup Flagship Program$1,200,000,000
Ministry of Industry, Commerce & Employment, Bhutan
- Skolkovo Foundation Grants$850,000,000
Skolkovo Foundation
- SME Subsidised Loan Facility$200,000,000
Government of Papua New Guinea, via Bank South Pacific
- Startup Tunisia (Smart Capital)$100,000,000
Smart Capital, Tunisia
Closed to Pakistani startups, and why
These set a country allowlist that does not include Pakistan. We list them so you do not spend an evening on an application that cannot succeed.
- R&D Tax Relief for SMEs
Open to United Kingdom.
- Egypt Ventures
Open to Egypt.
- Business Finland Tempo Funding
Open to Finland.
- Shanghai AI Ecosystem Subsidy Program
Open to China.
- ICICI Bank iStartup2.0
Open to India.
- EXIST Gründerstipendium
Open to Germany.
Accelerators based in Pakistan
Questions founders here ask
Looking for accelerators instead?
Credits and accelerator programs are judged on different rules, so they have their own list.
Startup accelerators in Pakistan