WEB DESK: Pakistani Art, the very first magazine of art in Pakistan, has been nominated for the “Startup of the Year” category at the Global Startup Awards 2025, representing Pakistan in the Central Asia Startup Awards Edition 11.
It means, for the first time, a Pakistani startup has been part of this prestigious international arena for startups.
The Global Startup Awards is acclaimed as the world’s largest independent startup competition. These awards are among the most appreciated in the field of start-ups. Originating from the Nordic Startup Awards, the competition now spans 154 countries across 19 regions through a franchise model.
PakistaniArt started as a digital art community on Instagram back in October 2020, founded by the talented Pakistani painter Awais Shaukat. The platform initially showcased the works of many Pakistani digital artists.
Last year, Awais announced plans to evolve PakistaniArt into a full-fledged print and digital magazine to support and promote Pakistani artists on a global scale. The nomination reflects the strong potential and distinctive vision of the startup, even though personal matters have caused the project to pause for a little while.
“As an artist, I know there aren’t many people to support us, and our society doesn’t understand,” Awais shared. “I want to provide an independent platform for small artists to grow as they wish.”
Awais Shaukat also has the honor of being the first-ever Pakistani in Crunchbase’s Top 100 Profiles, where he secured 24th position. In addition to PakistaniArt, Awais also contributes to other creative projects such as Illustronix. However, because of budgetary constraints, the availability of the crew, and ongoing educational commitments, a related film project has now been pushed till 2026.
