Qayaam, a startup by LUMS students, Muhammad Owais and Muhammad Azeem, and a FAST graduate Hamza Rasheed, secured 3rd position and won PKR 250,000 in prize money, at the Digital Youth Summit held in Peshawar on May 5-7, 2017. More than 100+ startups from across Pakistan applied to the Summit out of which 9 startups were selected as finalists to pitch at the Summit. The winning startups were selected by a panel of judges which included Khurram Zafar from 47 Ventures, VentureDive’s CEO Atif Azim, Planet N’s CEO Nadeem Hussain and Samayadar’s CEO Rabeel Warraich.
The Digital Youth Summit (DYS) is a tech conference and startup expo that takes place annually in Peshawar, Pakistan. DYS is a joint initiative of the Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the World Bank along with key local community and academic partners. The summit aims to bring together “the next generation of digital innovators in Pakistan”, tech industry leaders from Pakistan and abroad, and the startup community.
Qayaam is a platform for short-term renting and enables people to open their homes to those in need. The team aims to disrupt the hospitality industry of Pakistan through their startup. The students came up with the idea when one of the co-founders Hamza could not find temporary accommodation for himself while he was looking for an apartment.
Qayaam, currently has 30 hosts in Lahore and 180 hosts in Gilgit Baltistan. It has also collaborated with Akhuwat and Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund (PPAF) to promote tourism and to uplift the economy of North Pakistan. The team aims to capitalise on its recent successes and wants to build upon the traction generated. They plan to make the concept of short-term renting and paying guests a socially acceptable norm in Pakistan.
Currently, Qayaam is operating under the umbrella of Punjab Information Technology Board as one of incubated startups of PITB’s incubator Plan9. Previously, Qayaam was incubated at the LUMS Center for Entrepreneurship.
Team Qayaam
Muhammad Owais is a Management Sciences major from LUMS. He has previously been involved in a startup called ChaiChalk.
Muhammad Azeem is an Economics major from LUMS. He’s passionate about economics, finance and management.
Hamza Rasheed Qureshi is a CS graduate from FAST. He has extensive experience in Computer Science and has worked for Army Welfare Trust.
Junaid Sarfraz is a Computer Science graduate from Punjab University and is currently a Research Assistant at Information Technology University. He has worked extensively in the IT sector.
Rubab Zahra Sarfraz is a Computer Science graduate from UET, Lahore. She has wide experience in the IT sector having worked at multiple software houses.
