Nepali IT firms pitch to European buyers on UK and Swiss roadshow

What happened

The Nepal Association for Software and IT Services Companies, known as NAS-IT, ran its Nepal Tech Roadshow Europe from 6 to 21 September 2026, with stops in the United Kingdom and Switzerland. The London event took place at a hotel near Heathrow airport on 9 September. Fiscal Nepal reported that 17 Nepali companies took part, including EKbana Solutions, Genese Solution, inGrails, Young Innovations, TechKraft and Proshore Nepal. It was supported by Nepal in Business, a programme implemented by DAI Global UK.

NAS-IT announced the roadshow at a press meeting in Kathmandu in early August, Himal Press reported. The UK leg was planned for 6 to 12 September and the Swiss leg for 13 to 21 September. The aim was to connect Nepali firms with European businesses, investors, startups and Nepali technology professionals living in Europe. NAS-IT president Gaurav Pandey said the next step for Nepali companies was direct partnership with European businesses. NAS-IT also said annual export growth was an estimated 20 to 25 percent.

Speakers in London included NAS-IT vice president Bibhusan Bista, who described Nepal's technology sector and skilled workforce, and diplomats from both the Nepali embassy in London and the British embassy in Kathmandu. Company leaders spoke about their work in cloud computing, cybersecurity, payments, AI and enterprise software. NAS-IT said the event showed that Nepal can build technology and deliver high-value services, not only buy them.

The Zurich event on 16 September was organised with the Swiss Nepal Chamber of Commerce and supported by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. Each Nepali company gave a one-minute pitch to Swiss businesses and investors. ICT Frame counted 18 companies and Insurance Khabar counted 17. Deepen Chapagain, whom ICT Frame named as NAS-IT president, said the association holds a roadshow every year to bring Nepali IT services to global markets. ICT Frame reported that earlier roadshows went to Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom.

The bigger picture

The roadshow fits a larger trend. In February 2026 the Kathmandu Post reported NAS-IT's best estimate that Nepal's IT service exports passed one billion dollars in 2025, more than double the level of three years earlier. The last full study, by the Institute for Integrated Development Studies in 2022, put ICT exports at about 515 million dollars. NAS-IT reached the new figure by applying growth of about 20 percent a year to that base, so it is an estimate rather than an official count.

Measuring the sector is hard. According to the Kathmandu Post, Nepal Rastra Bank, the central bank, has no official way to track these earnings, because foreign clients often send payments that are recorded as remittances. Industry estimates put the workforce at about 100,000 people, up from more than 70,000 counted in the 2022 survey, and about 90 percent of IT jobs are in Kathmandu. Pandey told the Post that employment was growing about 18 percent a year.

The type of work varies widely. The Kathmandu Post described companies processing Australian home-loan data, firms analysing healthcare data for US clients, and others building software and AI services. The services pitched in London and Zurich covered artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, cloud infrastructure, data engineering, custom web and mobile applications, product development and business process outsourcing. Industry leaders told the Post that the sector needs stable tax rules and more foreign investment to keep growing. A researcher at the Institute for Integrated Development Studies credited Nepalis returning from abroad to start companies with much of the growth.

What it means in Nepal

The list of services pitched in Europe is a useful guide for students choosing electives and side projects. Cloud infrastructure, data engineering, cybersecurity and AI were named again and again, both in London and in Zurich. These are the areas where Nepali firms told foreign buyers they have strength. A student who builds a small project in one of them, and can explain it clearly, has something concrete to show. Several of the London speakers came from companies that already serve clients abroad, which shows that this work is being done from Nepal today.

Working for foreign clients also needs skills that are not purely technical. A one-minute pitch, a project proposal, a weekly status report and clear documentation all depend on good written and spoken English. Clients in another time zone need engineers who can estimate work honestly, meet deadlines and report problems early. These habits can be practised during a degree, in group projects, reports and presentations.

The numbers also deserve careful reading. The one-billion-dollar figure is an industry estimate built on growth assumptions, and the 100,000 workforce figure is also an estimate. NAS-IT itself said survey data would follow. Treating such figures as estimates, and asking how they were calculated, is the same careful thinking an engineer applies to any measurement. A digital governance expert quoted by the Post argued that the opportunity lies in AI-enabled services rather than low-wage work.