Central Asia meets China at S-Tron Shanghai 2025

On September 22, 2025, a historic event took place in Shanghai — the first Central Asia Meets China Meet-Up was held at S-Tron Shanghai, one of the largest startup and venture capital forums in China.

The event was organized by Khan Tengri Innovation Hub with the support of community partner S-Tron China. The meeting brought together leading entrepreneurs, investors, and experts from China and Central Asia.

Key Highlights

Welcome Address — Rafael Bekshentaev, COO of Khan Tengri Innovation Hub, presented the dynamics of the Central Asian tech ecosystem development.

Panel Discussion: "Has the World Become Flat Again? How China and Central Asia Can Collaborate in a BANI World." Speakers included founders and CEOs from Merfolk Games, Zehn AI, Companime AI, Innobaker Venture Studio, SolidRock, and Khan Tengri Hub.

Showcase of Central Asian Startups

Pleep AI — next-generation AI sellers, created in five minutes without a single prompt.

Zehn.ai — developer of foundational AI models, including the first LLM for the Tajik language.

Tantana.uz — a digital platform that automates restaurant operations and enhances customer experience.

SolidRock — a unified solution for launching gaming projects into the Eurasian market.

KazrobotiX — an autonomous innovative robot that precisely eliminates weeds using a trained machine learning model.

TabiLens — helps travel businesses find unique UGC content, while allowing traveler-creators to monetize their content.

NeoKazakh — an innovative educational AI assistant that helps students learn discipline through language study.

Botable.dev — a Kazakhstan-Armenian startup developing a tool that launches AI agents in minutes without code or a cluttered UI.

Open Mic & Networking — over 50 participants from both ecosystems presented their projects and discussed new directions for collaboration.

Why This Matters

The meetup marked the first step toward systematic integration: Central Asia gained a unique opportunity to directly present innovations on Shanghai's largest stage. Chinese investors and accelerators gained access to a fresh pool of projects from the region.

S-Tron Shanghai 2025 — 13,000+ participants, hundreds of investors, and dozens of global industry leaders. Now, Central Asia is among them.

The future of Shanghai ↔ Central Asia collaboration is already being built today.