IT community from Central Asia: Terricon Venture

Terricon Venture is a community that helps beginner business angels, as well as those who are just considering this path. Read more about the project below.

Maria Zhirkova, city — Karaganda, Head of Terricon Venture, the venture investment department of “Terricon Valley”, Instagram

About the community

The idea of creating a business angel community in Karaganda emerged a little over a year ago, when “Terricon Valley” began investing in startups undergoing acceleration in our programs. One of the major goals of the startup support and development ecosystem “Terricon Valley” is to strengthen Karaganda’s position as a hub where conditions are created for talented founders not only to launch projects here but also to reach new levels and markets while keeping their headquarters in the region.

The main goal of creating the community was to foster a culture of angel support for local startups by local entrepreneurs. In our view, the synergy of startup solutions, founders’ potential, and the capital and experience of local entrepreneurs can significantly support the development of the region as a technology-oriented one.

The key tasks of the community are to show experienced entrepreneurs the opportunities for interacting with startups. We have created a platform where those interested in the startup world but still unclear about how the venture industry works meet those who already have sufficient experience in venture investing and angel support. Most of the community’s work is aimed at conveying not only the idea but also practical knowledge about the benefits and risks of business angel investing.

Terricon Venture invests in startups at the earliest stage, when they particularly need support in the form of funding, experience, knowledge, and networking with business angels. Therefore, one of our tasks is to help beginner business angels or those who are just considering this path find teams they would like to support in a format beyond simply “here is your money — pay us back more later.”

On the other hand, we do not limit ourselves to Karaganda and actively expand our network not only between startups and local business angels but also introduce community members to other clubs and platforms.

Community members

The target audience of the community is primarily local entrepreneurs and top managers. As the community is still gaining momentum, there are those who have become business angels in two or three projects. These are owners of manufacturing and service companies. We are open to anyone who wants to support startups and create their own venture investment portfolios with us. To join us, it is enough to simply contact me and express interest. The community currently does not charge any membership fees, as we are focused on both quantitative and qualitative growth of its membership.

Events for community members

For community members, we regularly organize meetings with experienced business angels and venture investors. Over the past year, most of the strongest representatives of the industry have visited Karaganda to share their experience. We are supported by Murat Abdrakhmanov, Bakht Niyazov, Mirat Akhmetsadik, and Bolat Bashayev.

In the winter, we organized a startup valuation training for community members, conducted by KPMG experts. To better understand the mechanisms of interacting with startups, community members and those who are still considering venture investing hold meetings with founders of strong Kazakhstani startups that have already attracted multiple rounds of investment.

Events include not only theoretical discussions at workshops and trainings but also lunches and dinners that allow networking and informal communication. For example, on October 31, we will host a large party attended by stars of the Kazakhstani venture community and startups. It is timed with the Terricon Connect event, a large-scale event organized by “Terricon Valley” for startups, investors, and the corporate sector.

We invite not only community members to events but also everyone who wants to learn how to join and become a business angel.

How the community helps with development

Within the framework of the community, we regularly exchange news, ideas, and tools. Interacting with startups and experienced business angels often boosts the participants’ own companies.

Moreover, venture investing is a new and not always clear area for many entrepreneurs. The opportunity to understand how it works already expands professional knowledge. For some, interacting with startups as business angels helps reveal new aspects of personal potential.

Successful projects

As we are still gaining momentum — the community itself and the portfolios of startups of our participants are less than a year old, our checks are relatively small, and startups, as I mentioned, are very early stage. Therefore, for now, we can talk about bright moments such as several of our participants gradually becoming “serial” business angels, investing in two or three projects and considering new prospects. In the concept of venture portfolios, there is a “rule” that you need to invest in an average of ten startups for one to “hit it big” and cover the losses of the others with its success. We are at the beginning of this path, and therefore, for us, such a level of community member engagement is considered a very good result.

Over the past year, our community has become a notable player in the venture market of Kazakhstan, and we have entered the annual report on the development of venture investing in Central Asian countries, Rise of VC.

Plans

First of all, our plans are aimed at expanding the community. For this, I regularly meet with those interested in startups and venture investing, and interact with other business communities in the region. On October 30, we will hold an expanded investment committee, where teams undergoing the A to U accelerator will pitch to community representatives and the strongest business angels in the country. And on October 31, Terricon Connect and the party will take place.

Currently, we have open lots for investing in several startups. By investing in them, you can join the community. I and other participants actively share information about these opportunities with those who are still considering such prospects.

Although initially we focused primarily on the business angel community from Karaganda, we are open to participants from other cities in Kazakhstan as well.