AIFC Tech Hub, in partnership with Tuz Ventures, conducted the first study of Kazakhstan's startup ecosystem, surveying more than a hundred startups and interviewing local experts. Zerde NIH JSC, Astana Hub, Tech Garden and MOST also took part in the report.
Based on the data, the ecosystem of technology startups in Kazakhstan was described in detail, and findings were identified and summarized in six main pillars: startups and market, infrastructure and support, founders and HR, capital, government and corporations, the impact of COVID-19.
The report will be useful for technology entrepreneurs to gain insight into the market and competitors, government officials to better understand the country's innovation ecosystem, and investors to learn about the market and make investment decisions.
According to the report, the majority of startups that have entered the market over the past 2 years belong to three main sectors: e-commerce, EduTech, and FinTech. This happened partly due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the imposed restrictive measures. These three sectors are the most visible in the Kazakhstan market and continue to grow continuously.
Basically, startup founders are concentrated in two regions: Nur-Sultan and Almaty. The results of the report confirmed that a lion’s share of founders are male. Only 7.4% of Kazakhstan’s projects were founded by women.
Read more about findings of the research by following the link: https://tech.aifc.kz/reports/
Reference:
Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC) created by the initiative of the First President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev. The constitutional law on the establishment of the AIFC signed on December 7, 2015. The purpose of AIFC is the formation of a leading centre of financial services on the international level. AIFC’s tasks are to assist in attracting investments to the country’s economy by creating an attractive environment for investing in financial services, developing the securities market of the Republic of Kazakhstan, ensuring its integration with international capital markets. www.aifc.kz
AIFC Tech Hub is the meeting point for global start-ups, entrepreneurs, corporations, investors, experts, and specialists in the field of innovation. The development of fintech at the AIFC includes programs for start-up support, corporative innovations, the venture capital market, specially developed rules, and regulators that allow testing products and solutions in the field of fintech. http://www.fintech.aifc.kz/, http://www.fintechstars.aifc.kz/
TUZ Ventures is an early-stage tech venture capital (VC) fund founded by Silicon Valley entrepreneurs in September 2019. The fund focused on supporting early stage startups in Central Asia, the Caucasus and Mongolia. TUZ invests in regionally / globally scalable projects mainly targets fin-tech, logistics, AI, e-gov, and blockchain-related globally scalable startups. https://www.tuz.vc/