By Hamza Faisal
RLabs, a Pakistani startup building extended-reality simulators and AI training tools, has won the GOAL Startup Award at the Silicon Valley November Summit, putting Pakistan's growing startup scene on one of tech's biggest stages.
The award was announced at the summit in California, which ran from November 2 to 5 and was organised by Plug and Play, the global innovation platform and venture capital firm. RLabs was one of just 18 startups from around the world selected to pitch under Plug and Play's Global Overseas Acceleration & Learning (GOAL) programme.
A decade teaching people — and machines — to run complex equipment
RLabs is led by Harris Ahmed, a 2018 graduate of the National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST) in Islamabad, and is incubated at the National Incubation Centre for Aerospace Technologies (NICAT).
The company builds extended-reality (XR) simulators, synthetic data and machine-training systems — technology used to train people and artificial intelligence to operate complex equipment. Ahmed said he had spent the last decade teaching humans how to operate complex machines in XR, and that the team now uses the same human experience to train machine instincts.
According to NICAT, RLabs has been training a proprietary large language model to power a modular, cross-platform simulation engine that cuts development time by 75 per cent.
Three thousand attendees, hundreds of startups
The summit brought together more than 3,000 attendees, including founders, venture capitalists, corporate executives, innovation leaders and government partners. It centred on artificial intelligence and deep tech, with live demonstrations and pitches from more than 300 startups across over 20 industry programmes.
Ahmed, who shared a photo of himself posing with the award on LinkedIn, said the team had the chance to present its work on a platform that brought the global innovation community together. He added that RLabs is launching in the United States soon.
A proud moment for Pakistan's startup ecosystem
Federal Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication Shaza Fatima Khawaja congratulated the startup, calling the win a moment of immense pride for the ministry and its tech innovation arm, Ignite.
From Pakistan to Silicon Valley — a proud moment for our nation, the minister wrote, adding that seeing homegrown startups earn international recognition reinforces the government's commitment to nurturing innovation and creating global opportunities for the next generation of Pakistani entrepreneurs.
The win comes at a busy moment for Pakistan's tech sector. On October 10, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif inaugurated the newly renamed Daanish IT Park, the country's first national technology facility, bringing incubation centres, innovation hubs and startups together under one roof. The World Bank is also expected to help establish a $50 million Fund of Funds to support the country's early-stage venture capital ecosystem, with approval expected in early 2027.
For RLabs, the Silicon Valley award is both recognition and a launchpad — and, as the minister put it, one more success story taking Pakistan's flag to new heights.
