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On October 19 and 20, 2026, Paklaunch brought 120 people to The Yale Club of New York City: 80 global investors and 40 founders. Two investors for every founder.
It was UNConference26.2, the ninth edition of Paklaunch’s flagship gathering, powered by abhi, a fintech building embedded credit for emerging markets.
Paklaunch is one of Disrupt’s major portfolio investments. Our Founding Partner, Uzair Gadit, spoke on Day 2’s panel on rebuilding industries in the AI era.
The door opens both ways
Uzair describes what Aly Fahd, Paklaunch’s Founder, and his team have built as “a network that opens doors in both directions.” The room in New York showed what that means.
Pakistani talent already builds companies the world runs on. On opening night, Samar Abbas, Co-Founder and CEO of Temporal Technologies, spoke on his path “From Karachi to $12B.” Temporal builds the infrastructure that keeps software and AI agents running reliably. In September 2026 it raised $550 million at a $12.55 billion valuation.
Paklaunch is not only for Pakistanis. Its community spans more than 20 nationalities, with chapters in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Austin and London. The network brings that world together and connects it with capital and with the Middle East, so the region grows on the connections and knowledge that flow in.
That is why Disrupt backed it. Our mission is to help the Middle East build companies as powerful as Samsung and Tata, and technology companies like Google and Amazon, built here and built to outlast us. Too many companies in the region are built to be sold. Uzair sees it differently: building for the long term means enriching communities, helping fellow founders, opening connections and deal flow, and bringing the world’s centers of action together.
Paklaunch was already doing exactly that. Uzair is clear about where the credit belongs. “All we did was bring capital,” he said. The growth since belongs to Aly and his team.
A WhatsApp group of seven became a network in 30+ countries
On April 29, 2020, Aly Fahd started a single WhatsApp group of seven friends in the Bay Area. Today Paklaunch is a 600K+ strong community across 30+ countries. It has hosted 550+ events in 10+ countries and facilitated $140M+ in startup capital. Earlier UNConference editions ran in Palo Alto, London, Islamabad, Dubai and Riyadh, with the Gulf now a regular stop.
Disrupt led Paklaunch’s seed round in 2024 to grow startups across Pakistan and the GCC, and Uzair sits on its board. He is a serial entrepreneur and the Founder and CEO of Secure.com, which builds AI Teammates for security teams. Disrupt led its $4.5 million pre-seed round.
Built for the conversation after the session
UNConference is not a conference in the usual sense. More than 40 of the 120 participants were also speakers and moderators, leading talks, panels and small-group Expert Circles across two days. The agenda also left long stretches for people to meet: a meet and greet to open each day, a networking lunch on Day 2 and a dinner each night.
A format like this only works when people come ready to give their time. The speakers, panelists and Expert Circle leads did, and so did the founders and investors who came to New York to do real business.
Aly made introductions on the sidelines. Samar Abbas connected with Dr. Mohammed Badi, President, Global Servicing at American Express. Farid Virani, Founder and Executive Chairman of PRIME Communications, connected with Adnan Durrani, Founder and Executive Chairman of Saffron Road. Many more relationships started the same way. As Aly put it, “This is what it’s all about.”
Day 1 was about building beyond Silicon Valley
Bilal Lakhani, host of Pehchaan, a podcast about extraordinary Pakistani Americans, opened the evening. Dr. Mohammed Badi of American Express and Omair Ansari, Co-Founder and CEO of abhi, then joined a panel titled “Building Fintech for the Next 100M.”
Two talks showed what building beyond Silicon Valley looks like. Allen Taylor, Managing Partner at Endeavor Catalyst, spoke on $1B+ companies built outside the Valley. Farid Virani told his own story: from one kiosk to the largest AT&T Authorized Retailer in the US.
How Uzair runs an AI-native company
On Day 2, the panel on rebuilding industries in the AI era took the stage. Hassan Chaudhry, Investor at BlackRock, moderated. Uzair sat alongside Samar Abbas and founders and investors from US Mobile, ViaPhoton, Atlaris and Moment Ventures.
Hassan asked each panelist for a personal experience with AI that had surprised them. Uzair’s answer surprised the room. He uses AI to study how history’s great figures were raised, and turns those lessons into programs for his own children.
Then the conversation turned to business. Other panelists walked through how AI is changing the software development life cycle. Uzair went further. At Disrupt, an AI-native venture builder, AI runs go-to-market too. Autonomous agents go out and find customers.
He described what that looks like inside Secure.com. Every customer call, meeting, interview, piece of market research and positioning statement sits in a single repository, alongside the code. Each morning, one Slack notification sums up everything happening across the company and flags the few things that need his attention. “This is how we are running the AI-native company,” he said.
Day 2 followed the capital
The money conversation started that morning. Omair Ansari of abhi opened Day 2 with “From Wall Street to Main Street,” and Yawar Shah, former Chairman of the Board at Swift, followed on where global digital payments are heading. Later, Aatif Awan, Founder and Managing Partner of Indus Valley Capital, spoke on “Silicon Valley Playbooks, Frontier Market Realities,” and Dr. Zeelaf Munir, Managing Director and CEO of EBM, the maker of Peek Freans, joined the panel on building global brands from anywhere.
The afternoon turned fully to capital. Zain Shamim, Director, Private Equity at DFC, the US government’s development finance institution, spoke on how governments are back in the growth game. Kalsoom Lakhani, Co-Founder and GP of i2i Ventures, moderated the panel on where smart money is going. Rizwan Saeed Sheikh, Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United States, spoke on the diaspora dividend, and investors shared what makes them say yes.
The full speaker lineup is on the UNConference26.2 agenda.
The door stays open
Seven friends in 2020. A 600K+ strong community in 30+ countries in 2026. One room of 120 in New York.
Events end. A network that opens doors in both directions keeps working. That is what Disrupt backed.
