31 person from Kazakhstan who contributed to the development of the IT sphere in 2023

We are sharing the results of the year in Kazakhstan’s IT sector and telling you about the people who created projects, developed their companies, and managed to improve Kazakhstan’s IT industry.

Magzhan Madiyev, CEO Astana Hub

Jambul Makhmetov, Managing Director Astana Hub

Alina Abdrakhmanova, ex-Managing Director Astana Hub

Tanat Uskenbayev, Managing Director Astana Hub

Aziz Tleumuratov, Managing Director Astana Hub

Daniya Akhmetova, Managing Director 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 participated

— Silkway Accelerator, a joint program with Google for Startups. 24 startups participated in it, which together attracted $4,200,000

— the Tech Orda program, within which you can study an IT specialty for free. 83 IT schools and 3,183 students participated in it

— the IT-Aiel program, within which 1,300 Kazakhstani women were able to master basic technological skills and create their first IT applications.

Pavel Koktyshev, Co-founder and Managing Partner MOST Ventures

Mirat Akhmet-sadykov, Managing Partner MOST Ventures

Alim Khamitov, CEO MOST Ventures

Elmira Obry, CEO MOST Business Intelligence

Bakht Niyazov, Co-founder MOST Ventures

The MOST Holding created and conducted many cool projects for startups, investors, and trackers: Investment Readiness Accelerator, “Tracker School,” “Angel Investor School.” Participants achieved great results; for example, the startup Qtap attracted $560,000 in investments. And the total amount of funds attracted by startups in 2023 amounted to $9,000,000.

Also, the fund invested in such startups as PLATMA, BPM Tracker, Qtap, and others.

Murat Abdrakhmanov, Venture Investor

Murat Abdrakhmanov invested $150,000 in ProsperPay, as well as invested in the PLATMA and ADAPT projects. This will help startups develop their products and scale.

Bagdat Mussin, Minister of Digital Development, Innovations and Aerospace Industry of the Republic of Kazakhstan

As a result of the ministry's work, 55% of vehicle registrations and 67% of mortgage loans are carried out online. The “Electronic Government” learned to congratulate every citizen on their birthday and notify in advance that the validity period of documents has expired.

Also, the ministry connected the internet in 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 launched in one of the leading hospitals in Uzbekistan, Shox International Hospital. Also, Cerebra won the international Global Startup Awards competition in the Best VerTech startup 2023 category. 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 Ministry of Health of Saudi Arabia, the SEHA virtual hospital, and the Innovation Support Center. All of this will help create and develop new technologies.

Assem Bolatzhan, Managing Director of JSC “Kazpost”

The company began cooperating with Amazon Web Services. This will help them implement innovative IT solutions, automate business processes, reduce time to market for new products and services.

Also, the company became a financial aggregator and operator of the pilot project of the National Bank of the Republic of Kazakhstan – “Digital Tenge.” It allows making cashless payments in places with limited internet access.

Askar Aituov, 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 successfully took place in Astana, Almaty, Bishkek, Tashkent, and other cities. These conferences brought together novice developers with leading industry specialists, where they were able to learn new information and improve their skills.

Aidana Aituarova, Founder of Porte

The startup entered the global 500 Startups accelerator in Georgia. This is one of the largest accelerators for startups. Also, the project won at Astana Hub Battle 2023 in the Most Investable category.

Maksat Bektibayev, Co-founder of Beksar

Bauyrzhan Sarsembayev, Co-founder of Beksar

Aidyn Temekov, Co-founder of Beksar

The startup connected 2,200 stores to its system. Over the entire period of its existence, it attracted about $50,000. At Astana Hub Battle 2023, they won in the Exponential Growth category. During the IRA acceleration from MOST, they increased their MRR from $10,000 to $30,000.

Yana Shoybekova, Founder of Citix

Citix acquired a 49% stake in the startups Quantum and Excello.

The startup attracted $10,000,000 in investments, which were attracted as part of a bond issuance.

Also, Citix received an investment of $1,000,000 from Tim Draper.

Chingiz Dauletbayev, CEO of TrustMe

The Kazakh startup TrustMe entered the top ten best technology companies at the end of the Demo Day of the Hero Training program from Astana Hub in Silicon Valley. Venture investor Tim Draper 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 attracted $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 Kazakhstani investor 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. Also, the company created Spark Lab — a project-educational laboratory uniting university students from Almaty to work on projects aimed at solving socially significant problems in Kazakhstan.

Kuanyshbek Esekeyev, CEO of “Kazakhtelecom”

“Kazakhtelecom” developed the E-Kassa application. This is a free program that replaces cash registers and helps with accounting for funds, registration, and control of cash operations.

“Kazakhtelecom” and the company “Smart Cities” signed a cooperation agreement on 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 of Terricon Valley

Terricon Valley organized acceleration and incubation programs for startuppers. Every week, meetups with cool speakers and free training courses for IT specialists were held here. All of this creates a platform for networking and exchanging experience among developers.

Adil Nurgozhin, Managing Partner of Big Sky Capital

Zhanibek Karsybaev, Managing Partner of Big Sky Capital

Big Sky Capital won the Digital Bridge Awards 2023 in the VC of the Year category. The fund acted as the lead investor in a round with CerebraAI in the amount of $4,100,000. Also, it invested $200,000 in ApartX, $250,000 in HeRo Study, and invested in the startup Kwaaka.

Arman Suleimenov, CEO of nFactorial School

nFactorial School conducts the nFactorial Incubator 2023 program, to which 4,100 people applied. The top 100 developers were able to acquire new skills and develop their own AI applications. This contributes to the development of local IT specialists and increases their chances of getting a job in international companies.

Also, Arman Suleimenov hosts his own podcast, nFactorial Podcast, through which viewers learn about successful programmers. They often give useful advice on resume writing and careers.

Agis Konkabayeva, CEO of red_mad_robot Central Asia

The company received the award “Fastest Growing Company in Central Asia” at the Central Asian Tech Awards. red_mad_robot Central Asia developed four new digital services for the largest banks in Kazakhstan.

For the Uzbek market, it implemented a new Telegram bot service for issuing microloans in two months.

Also, the company held four meetups for the IT community, which gathered more than 500 people.

Asat Abdualiyev, 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. It serves as a platform for networking, knowledge exchange, and also facilitates 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 of 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 the company Arbuz Group.