31 people from Kazakhstan/Qazaqstan who contributed to the development of the IT sector in 2023
This is a translation from original article of The-tech.kz from 21 DEC, 2023.
We share the results of the year in the IT sector of Kazakhstan and talk about the people who created projects, developed their companies and were able to improve the IT industry of Kazakhstan.
Magzhan Madiev , CEO of Astana Hub
Makhmetov Dzhambul , Managing Director of Astana Hub
Alina Abdrakhmanova , ex-managing director of Astana Hub
Tanat Uskembaev , Managing Director of Astana Hub
Aziz Tleumuratov , Managing Director of Astana Hub
Daniya Akhmetova , Managing Director of Astana Hub
In 2023, Astana Hub organized many projects for Central Asian startups and IT specialists:
— Hero Training, a joint program with Draper University, in which 27 startups took part
— Silkway Accelerator, a joint program with Google for Startup. 24 startups took part in it, raising a total of $4,200,000
— Tech Orda program, within which you can learn IT skills for free. 83 IT schools and 3183 students took part in it
- IT-Aiel program, within the framework of which 1,300 Kazakh women were able to master basic technology skills and create their first IT applications.
Pavel Koktyshev , co-founder and managing partner of MOST Ventures
Mirat Akhmetsadykov , managing partner of MOST Ventures
Alim Khamitov , CEO MOST Ventures
Elmira Aubry , CEO MOST Business Intelligence
Bakht Niyazov , co-founder of MOST Ventures
MOST Holding has created and carried out many cool projects for startups, investors and trackers: Investment Readiness Accelerator, Tracker School, Business Angel School. The participants achieved great results, for example, the startup Qtap attracted $560,000 in investments. And the total amount of funds raised by startups for 2023 was $9,000,000.
The fund also invested in startups such as PLATMA, BPM Tracker, Qtap and others.
Murat Abdrakhmanov , venture investor
Murat Abdrakhmanov invested $150,000 in ProsperPay, and also invested in the PLATMA and ADAPT projects. This will help startups develop their products and scale.
Bagdat Musin , Minister of Digital Development, Innovation and Aerospace Industry of the Republic of Kazakhstan
According to the results of the ministry’s work, 55% of car registrations and 67% of mortgage loans are carried out online. “Electronic government” has learned to congratulate every citizen on his birthday and notify in advance that documents have expired.
The ministry also connected the Internet to 251 villages across the country and improved the quality of the Internet in 1,463 villages.
Doszhan Zhusupov , founder of Cerebra
In 2023, the startup was launched in one of the leading hospitals in Uzbekistan, Shox International Hospital. Cerebra also won the international competition Global Startup Awards in the category Best VerTech startup 2023. This is the largest independent startup ecosystem competition headquartered in Copenhagen.
The project was recognized as the best innovative project of the year in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The team gained access to the sandbox of the KSA Ministry of Health, the SEHA virtual hospital and the Innovation Promotion Center. All this will help create and develop new technologies.
Assem Bolatzhan , Managing Director of Kazpost JSC
The company began collaborating with Amazon Web Services. This will help them implement innovative IT solutions, automate business processes, and reduce the time to market for new products and services.
The company also became a financial aggregator and operator of the pilot project of the National Bank of the Republic of Kazakhstan — “Digital Tenge”. It allows you to make non-cash payments in places with limited access to the Internet.
Askar Aituov /Asqar Aitu , DevRel Google for Developers and Google for Startups
Google for Developers and Google for Startups held a large number of events for IT specialists and entrepreneurs. Google DevFest was successfully held in Astana, Almaty, Bishkek, Tashkent and other cities. These conferences brought together aspiring developers with leading industry experts, where they were able to learn new information and improve their skills.
Aidana Aituarova , founder of Porte
The startup entered the global accelerator 500 Startups in Georgia. This is one of the largest accelerators for startups. The project also won at Astana Hub Battle 2023 in the Most Investable category.
Maksat Bektibaev , co-founder of Beksar
Bauyrzhan Sarsembayev , co-founder of Beksar
Aydin Temekov , co-founder of Beksar
The startup has connected 2,200 stores to its system. Over the entire period of its existence, it has raised about $50,000. At Astana Hub Battle 2023 they won in the Exponential Growth category. During acceleration, MOST IRAs increased their MRR from $10,000 to $30,000.
Yana Shoybekova , founder of Citix
Citix acquired a 49% stake in startups Quantum and Excello.
The startup attracted $10,000,000 in investments, which were raised as part of a bond issue.
Citix also received an investment of $1,000,000 from Tim Draper.
Chingiz Dauletbaev , CEO TrustMe
Kazakh startup TrustMe entered the top ten best technology companies following the Demo Day of the Hero Training program from Astana Hub in Silicon Valley. Venture capitalist Tim Draper has expressed interest in investing in the project.
Ilyas Isataev , CEO of Invictus Group, founder and CEO of Hero’s Journey
The startup Hero’s Journey has raised $900,000 in investments to develop a network of innovative fitness gyms in Kazakhstan.
The investors were the international venture fund Big Sky Capital and the Kazakh investment holding EA Group Holding.
Arsen Tomsky , CEO and founder of inDrive
inDrive launched a free social leadership program in Kazakhstan with the support of regional IT hubs. The company also created Spark Lab, a design and educational laboratory that brings together Almaty university students to work on projects aimed at solving socially significant problems in Kazakhstan.
Kuanyshbek Yesekeev , CEO of Kazakhtelecom
Kazakhtelecom has developed the E-Kassa application. This is a free program that replaces cash registers and helps with cash accounting, registration and control of cash transactions.
Kazakhtelecom and the Smart Cities company entered into an agreement on cooperation in the development of cloud technologies in Kazakhstan, as well as expanding the line of cloud solutions and products. The first few joint cloud services have already been presented by Kazakhtelecom on its business portal ismet.kz.
Sabir Niyazov , CEO Terricon Valley
Terricon Valley organized acceleration and incubation programs for startups. Every week, meetups with cool speakers and free training courses for IT specialists were held here. All this creates a platform for networking and exchange of experience between developers.
Adil Nurgozhin , managing partner of Big Sky Capital
Zhanibek Karsybaev , managing partner of Big Sky Capital
Big Sky Capital won the VC of the Year category at the Digital Bridge Awards 2023. The fund acted as a lead investor in a round with CerebraAI in the amount of $4,100,000. He also invested $200,000 in ApartX, $250,000 in HeRo Study and invested in the startup Kwaaka.
Arman Suleimenov , CEO nFactorial School
nFactorial School runs the nFactorial Incubator 2023 program, where 4,100 people applied. The 100 best developers were able to gain new skills and develop their own AI applications. This contributes to the development of local IT specialists and increases their opportunity to get jobs in international companies.
Arman Suleimenov also hosts his own podcast, nFactorial Podcast, in which viewers learn about successful programmers. They often give useful advice on writing a resume and career.
Agiis Konkabaeva , CEO red_mad_robot Central Asia
The company received the “Fastest Growing Company in Central Asia” award based on the results of the Central Asian Tech Awards. red_mad_robot Central Asia has developed four new digital services for the largest banks in Kazakhstan.
For the Uzbekistan market, we implemented a new Telegram bot service for issuing microloans in two months
The company also held four meetups for the IT community, which brought together more than 500 people.
Aset Abdualiev, CEO and founder of Silkroad Innovation Hub
Silkroad Innovation Hub was opened in San Francisco, California. This is the first and only IT hub in Silicon Valley designed for startups from Central Asia. Serves as a platform for networking, knowledge exchange, and also promotes cooperation in the field of IT entrepreneurship.
The Ministry of Digital Development of Kazakhstan, together with Astana Hub and Silkroad Innovation Hub, organized the participation of startup projects from Central Asia at the world exhibition TechCrunch Disrupt 2023. This helped startups establish connections with international companies and tell the world about their projects
Timur Turlov, CEO Freedom Holding
In 2023, Timur Turlov invested $1,500,000 in the Kazakh startup CTOgram. The investments helped improve the quality of the product.
Also in June, Freedom Holding acquired 81.92% of the shares of Arbuz Group.
