ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s digital horizon is bringing about a revolution in enterprises’ workings and societal behaviours. A few shops in Lahore’s busy marketplaces have started using ‘E-Khata’ to run their businesses. E-Khata is a flexible plug and play ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) solution.

ZainGohar, project leader, says he conceived the idea months ago, but its realization occurred at Abacus Consulting’s APIthon I in January this year. He says APIthon I gave him a lifetime opportunity to implement some strong features and essence of Fintech, which would be impossible for any startup in Pakistan to achieve in mere 30 hours. Similarly, DreamX – the winner of APIthon I – developed an AI-based chat-bot using the APIs of partners available during the event. “APIthon and Abacus have really helped us to take our AI-based chat-bot to the next level through utilization of available APIs”, says AhsanAjaz, founder, DreamX.

“Several brilliant ideas remain just ideas because of the lack of collaboration between the industry and application developers, and that’s a great injustice to our talent,” said Abacus Consulting Managing Director, Abbas Ali Khan, who shared the success stories of APIthon I.  He says the success of APIthon I inspired him to arrange APIthon II which will be held at the National Incubation Centre, Islamabad, on May 5th and 6th. He said, “The world is in the middle of the fourth industrial revolution and Abacus intends to support initiatives that include Artificial Intelligence, Robotic Process Automation, APIs and Platform economy to name a few”. “We have been enabling our clients to stay relevant in the 4IR and now through APIthon Chapter II, we will empower startups and young entrepreneurs to collaborate with big companies and leverage from this new digital age,” he added.

Besides E-Khata, another application, Repair Wala, was made a reality at APIthon I. Its founder SohaibArif says they got valuable feedback, API access and multiple investment opportunities from APIthon I. APIthon II also offers free registration to App developers and a chance to compete for cash prizes, seed money and mentorship by international and national companies. Registration is open at apithon.co.

‘Bike It!’ is yet another remarkable venture that came to fruition atAPIthon I. ZainHaider, the App founder, says APIthon played a major role in completing their product as they were lacking Mobile Wallet access for payments and biometric verification support for user identification.

“All of the projects of APIthon I were incredible. Pakistan has a huge potential and if we are streamlined with the latest trends and technologies, we can do wonders as a nation,” said Abbas Ali Khan, Managing Director, AbacusConsulting.

For APIthon II, Abacus has partnered up with Apigee, Jazz, Telenor 4G, UBER, Bookme.pk, JS Bank, TiE Islamabad, Ignite and the National Incubation Centre, Islamabad.