2024 was a year of unprecedented change. While tech companies in Pakistan made significant strides with AI-driven advancements, many startups and freelancers faced great challenges due to internet disruptions. The political instability and poor economic conditions in the country led to a volatile environment that hindered the growth of the startup ecosystem. Factors like inflation, currency devaluation and high interest rates made it difficult for businesses to secure funding.
As the year comes to an end, let’s take a look back at how Daftarkhwan surged forward with resilience, despite all the challenges this year.
This year, we achieved remarkable milestones including the launch of our 10th and most iconic site, Daftarkhwan | Boulevard. Located on Main Boulevard, Gulberg, our coworking space offers five floors of executive private offices, conference rooms, a founder’s lounge, phone booths, rooftop and workspaces with adjoined balconies, letting you bask in the vibrant views of the city. The newest addition at Boulevard came with the launch of our state-of-the-art Podcast Studio, allowing content creators to benefit from professional equipment and end-to-end production services.
Based in Pakistan’s major cities - Lahore, Islamabad and Rawalpindi, we grew to an incredible 370,000+ square feet and became home to 5000+ members. We welcomed renowned brands like Siemens, British Council, Systems Limited and Haleon to our community of 300+ diverse businesses. This year, our supercommunity also made big headlines with significant achievements. Our members, Neem, secured a 4-million-dollar credit facility from the South African DNI group. Whilst Software Finder experienced immense growth that allowed their business to scale up to triple their capacity.
We also focused on expanding and re-modelling our existing sites this year like Daftarkhwan | Vanguard in Islamabad and Daftarkhwan | Vogue in Lahore that transformed into our third flagship site in Gulberg. With the expansion at Vogue, the National Incubator Center Lahore (NICL), which was previously operating from LUMS, moved to Daftarkhwan. Their strategic shift to this location opened up an array of opportunities for incubated startups to benefit from priceless networks and synergistic partnerships.
Moreover, our partnerships in 2024 with Avari Group, NICL, Howdy and Adeel Hashmi provided perks and opportunities to our community members and the ecosystem, giving them the freedom to learn, grow and scale.
We launched Arthaus by Daftarkhwan that celebrates the fusion of art and technology, from virtual exhibitions and interactive installations to classical fine art. For our first gallery exhibition, we featured Fusion of Forms, by The Chirpy Wall, which drew in renowned collectors like Adeel Hashmi and Akhtar Nazir Cooki who were excited to find pieces to add to their eclectic collection.
Daftarkhwan also had the privilege of hosting 150+ events this year. We welcomed significant people like Dr. Umar Saif, Aziz Hashim, Suneel Munj, and the President of Azerbaijan. In addition to this, we collaborated with diverse industry leaders for our Fireside series featuring prominent names such as Ali Ihsan, Hirra Babar and Fatima Amjed.
Despite the turbulent year, during which our voices were stifled, the air was choking and when progress seemed limited. We focused on growing a supercommunity that has the freedom to feel inspired, empowered and at home to drive world-changing work. In 2025, whether you’re reinventing yourself, your product or your service, Daftarkhwan aims to be the ultimate destination for you to take the lead.
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