The story of a startup from Atyrau that saves car owners' time and builds a world-class product

Asylan Kadirzhanov, City — Almaty, CEO & Founder, Instagram

How It All Started

I was born on October 25, 1993, in Atyrau. My career began as an engineer, and I eventually rose to the position of Head of Electrical Systems Department at one of Kazakhstan’s largest oil companies, Tengizchevroil. There, I learned to work on large-scale infrastructure projects, manage teams, and think systematically. But inside me, there was always a desire to create products that change conventional markets.

At some point, I realized that the oil and gas industry no longer gave me the drive I needed. I decided to risk everything and launch my own IT startup. Everything was on the line: my career, money, and even self-belief. But it was precisely then that my wife, family, and friends helped me get through a turning point when I wanted to quit everything. Thus, Avto-Time was born.

Auto service businesses still live in the “pre-digital era”:

— businesses operate in a semi-manual mode
— customers lose time and transparency
— services do not know how to work with retention and loyalty
— there is no single platform for booking, payment, and CRM.

This is an “old market without digitalization” — and it is exactly here that we saw the chance to build a billion-dollar company.

Startup Launch

We started with an MVP: a simple car wash booking service. Then we added the first CRM features. The first partners were hard to win over — we had to literally explain that digitalization is not a threat, but an opportunity for growth.

The Product-Market Fit moment arrived when we saw the first orders and realized: people are ready to use the app, and services are ready to connect. This was a turning point: it became clear that we were building not just a service, but an ecosystem.

Today, the core of Avto-Time looks like this:
— CRM for auto services: customer database, visit history, analytics
— online booking and payment via the app
— loyalty program: cashback and bonuses
— built-in payments directly within the service.

Already today, this drives business growth and saves customers time.

But the real game begins now — the transformation of Avto-Time into an AI platform:

1. AI assistant for clients: a chatbot/voice bot that can automatically book a car for service, remind about maintenance, and suggest seasonal services such as tire changes, detailing, or tuning.
2. AI assistant for owners: load forecasting, automated marketing, personalized promotions.
3. AI recommendations for upsell and cross-sell — algorithms suggest which additional services or products will be most relevant for a specific client, such as tire replacement, purchasing accessories, or insurance.
4. Dynamic Pricing: dynamic pricing modeled after Uber and Yandex. Prices depend on peaks and troughs.
5. AI analysis of business efficiency: revenue forecasts, load reports, seasonal trends.

This is our WOW moment: Avto-Time transforms from a “record-keeping tool” into a “digital manager of an auto service.”

Product Evolution:

Stage 1: CRM + payments + loyalty.

Stage 2, 12-18 months: AI chatbot for client booking, marketing automation.

Stage 3, two to three years: AI management of service loads, dynamic pricing, recommendations.

Stage 4, three to four years: a fully automated ecosystem for the auto service market with white-label solutions for chains and a SaaS model.

Target Audience

Currently, we have 19,361 active users, 8,329 successfully completed orders, and 78 partner auto services.

The project has already attracted interest from Freedom Bank, Halyk Bank, and RBC. We have built a solid foundation and gathered unique data that will serve as the basis for future AI algorithms.

Challenges

The main challenge was changing market habits. Service owners said: “We are already working fine.” We broke down these barriers step by step, demonstrating the value of automation and transparency.

There was also a personal turning point for me: I wanted to quit everything. But the support of my family and belief in the mission helped me get through it.

Advice for aspiring founders: do not wait for the perfect product. Enter the market with an MVP, listen to customers, and iteratively improve. Only then does Product-Market Fit emerge.

Achievements

We successfully completed the accelerator programs Scalerator 2.0 and Silkroad Innovation Hub, and spent four months in San Francisco. During this time, the project attracted tens of thousands of users and partners, and sparked interest among major banks and investors. Today, we are moving from a local MVP to a large-scale AI transformation of the industry.

Plans

We are preparing to launch new microservices for car owners and are actively working on scaling in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. By the end of the year, we plan to enter the US market and transform the project into an AI platform with Dynamic Pricing and personalized recommendation modules. Our goal is to turn Avto-Time into a full-fledged ecosystem with a billion-dollar valuation.

Regarding AI transformation, I work with my advisor and early investor — Niyazov Bakht Bulatovich, who helps build strategy and strengthen our technological capabilities.