By Aitizaz Hassan ISLAMABAD, May 18 (INP-WealthPk): Pakistani startups involving founders with international qualifications tend to secure more lucrative investments in the last few years, largely due to the higher level of trust reaped by the international qualifications, reports WealthPK. According to a survey conducted by Invest2Innovate, a startup consultancy company, founding teams in which at least one founder had an international degree accounted for 53% ($300 million across 80 deals) of the total amount raised from 2015 to 2021. Data shows that the founding teams with all international degrees accounted for 22.7% ($128 million across 50 deals) of the total amount raised, while only 15.7% ($89 million across 89 deals) was attributed to teams with all locally educated founders. Additionally, an international degree significantly increased the likelihood of raising a larger round as evidenced by respective average ticket sizes. According to Invest2Innovate data, founding teams with one or all internationally educated members are also more likely to have a foreign investor lead the round compared to teams with all founders educated from local institutions. Globally, alumni of elite universities maintain higher representation in investment activity. For example, founders (originating from the US) with an undergraduate degree from Stanford University raised $76.7 billion during 2021 and had more deals attributed to them than any other educational institution. The survey of Invest2Innovate shows that startups in Pakistan with at least one founder with an international degree not only successfully raise investment more often than the local degree holders, but they also raise larger ticket sizes and are much more likely to raise from international investors than founders with a degree from a local institution. While this establishes that the founders’ educational background (i.e. international versus local) correlates with their raising investment (i.e. a positive investment outcome), their deal sizes, and who they raise from, it does not necessarily establish causality. The international degree founders have more worth of social capital developed during the course of their education. They have learnt more effective soft and hard skills during the international educational programs compared to local universities, and overall exposure to more sophisticated entrepreneurial ecosystems afforded by international institutions among other factors. Although the government and the Higher Education Commission (HEC) have played a central role in working with universities to establish business incubators and Offices of Research, Innovation and Commercialization (ORICs), opinions on the effectiveness of these institutions in serving their intended purpose remain uncertain. Among the respondents, 64% of startups, 60% of entrepreneur support Organizations (ESOs), and 35% of investors said that there was a lack of collaborative initiatives between the industry research & development and universities, which creates a major challenge for startups, according to the Invest2innovate survey. Another perspective is that founders with exposure to international networks are already familiar with the necessary skills for startup fundraising. Networking is a strong part of western higher education, particularly in business schools, and learning how to build such connections would prepare people well for fundraising in future where warm introductions and referrals are vital.