How an entrepreneur from Kazakhstan created an EdTech startup in Karakalpakstan. The story of ORDO HOLDING

Read also how CyberNet AI creates voice AI operators for call centers in Uzbekistan.

Aida Azamatkyzy, city — Nukus, CEO ORDO HOLDING, Instagram

About Me

I was born in Kazakhstan, and today I am developing ORDO HOLDING — an EdTech startup that helps digitize preschool education. But my story did not begin with a startup.

Before ORDO, I built a network of more than 55 kindergartens in 13 cities across Kazakhstan. It was this experience that led me to create a technological product. I wasn’t looking for a startup idea — my own business suggested it.

Although I am Kazakh, a significant part of my story today is connected with Uzbekistan, specifically Nukus. I first came here in September 2025. By November, I had registered a company, become a resident of IT Park Karakalpakstan, opened bank accounts, and started building operational processes.

IT Park provided strong support at the start. They offered me a free office for the first year, helped with hiring staff, and under the Zero Risk program, provided computers and laptops. Thanks to this support, entering a new market turned out to be much easier.

Why Nukus?

This decision was quite rational.

First, the Karakalpak and Kazakh languages are very similar. This facilitates communication within the team and allows for faster establishment of work processes.

Second, the cost of hiring specialists here is significantly lower. If an employee in Astana might cost around $1,000 per month, a specialist of comparable level in Nukus costs approximately $200. At the same time, the quality of work differs only slightly.

Moreover, the preschool education market in Central Asia is still developing. There are practically no qualified managers specifically in this field, so specialists still need to be trained independently.

About the ORDO Startup

I opened my first kindergarten in 2020, during the pandemic, for my two sons. Over time, one kindergarten grew into a network of more than 55 branches across Kazakhstan. Along with this growth came new challenges. Kazakhstan is a large country, with distances between cities measured in thousands of kilometers. It became impossible to personally control every branch.

That’s when I realized that the only way to scale was to standardize and automate processes. Thus, the ORDO ERP platform was born.

I invested more than $500,000 of my own funds, earned through the kindergarten network, into the product development. 

We created ORDO as a unified platform for managing kindergartens. It combines CRM, accounting, LMS, and tools for managing the educational process. But the most important part of the platform is child development analysis. In preschool education, there are no standard school grades. Here, it is important to understand whether a child has fully mastered a particular skill, partially, or not at all.

The platform collects data on children’s communicative, physical, cognitive, creative, and social skills. Then, artificial intelligence analyzes this information and generates personalized recommendations for parents and educators.

Target Audience

ORDO sales in Uzbekistan started in late February 2026. In the first month, 10 kindergartens connected to the platform. At first glance, this seems small. But for a B2B startup entering a new market with a new team and new clients, I consider this a good start.

A Mistake Many Founders Make

One of my biggest mistakes was believing that the market was already waiting for my product. I thought that in the first year, we would connect more than a thousand kindergartens.

But reality proved otherwise.

Like many founders, I lived with the thought: “Everyone is waiting for my product.” The success of my first business gave me confidence, but it quickly became clear that building a startup is completely different from developing a traditional business.

Honestly speaking, opening 100 kindergartens turned out to be easier than selling 100 B2B subscriptions to the platform.

Plans

Currently, we are already implementing pilot projects in Malaysia. We are also considering countries in the MENA region, India, and Southeast Asia. I have studied some African markets as well. In many countries, preschool education problems are even more acute than ours.

When choosing new markets, we look not only at their size. For us, the level of digitalization, the presence of competitors, customer acquisition cost, and partnership opportunities are important. If CAC turns out to be too high, we can delay entering the market or abandon it altogether.

ORDO is in the Seed stage. Our immediate goal is to connect 500 to 1,000 kindergartens. When the number of connected institutions reaches 10,000, we expect to achieve $1.2 million in annual recurring revenue.

Currently, the ORDO IT platform is valued at approximately $2 million. At the same time, the value of my kindergarten network in Kazakhstan is not included in this valuation. We also plan to raise $200,000 in investments. The main portion of these funds will be directed toward marketing and sales development.

When I was building the kindergarten network, my goal was to create the largest preschool education network in Kazakhstan. I achieved this goal. Now, I want to build an international EdTech company with ARR exceeding $1 million.

And it is important to me that ORDO is known as a startup that grew specifically in Nukus, in Karakalpakstan. I sincerely believe that Karakalpakstan can become an excellent entry point for Kazakh startups into the Uzbek market. We are united by similar languages, culture, and geography, which gives entrepreneurs a significant advantage.