Hackathon, accelerator program, and other opportunities calendar for December 2025

Webinar “MA7 Ventures Webinar: Trends in Early-Stage AI Investments”
Speakers will discuss why the fund has intensified its focus on Pre-Seed investments in the AI era, which models and product types are currently most attractive to investors, how the venture landscape has changed, and why many previous business models have lost their relevance. Participants will gain a current understanding of the development direction of AI startups and the expectations of VC funds.

When: December 2 at 17:00
Where: online

Course for Beginner Business Angels
A practical course for beginner business angels that teaches how to find and evaluate promising startups, work with venture investment tools, and analyze real investment deals. The course is held offline and is suitable for executives, entrepreneurs, and investors who wish to develop skills in IT and AI investments and get to know the angel community.

Where: Astana/Almaty
When: December 2-3 / December 10-11

Silkroad Venture School
A five-day online program that teaches participants the basics of angel and venture investing. The program covers finding promising startups, conducting due diligence, deal structuring, and preparing companies for entry into international markets, among other topics.

Application deadline: December 3

Kolesa QA Meetup
An evening for quality specialists to discuss practical testing approaches, learn how to reduce routine tasks so that QA teams can focus on what matters, and much more. Participants will enjoy three presentations, live examples, roundtable discussions, and opportunities to exchange experience with colleagues from the industry.

When: December 4
Where: online / Almaty, 157/4 Shevchenko St.

LeetCode League
An opportunity to test your sports programming skills with BigO. Participation offers a chance to experience the thrill of competition, gain experience for olympiads, interviews, and programming in general, and meet like-minded people. The tournament has a prize fund of 150,000 tenge.

Application deadline: December 5

When: December 13
Where: Almaty, NIS Almaty-Narynbay

Info Session with HSITP and Khan Tengri Hub
An online info session with representatives of HSITP and Khan Tengri Hub, where they will detail the SPIN, IGNITE, and GAS programs, participation conditions, and startup support in China, as well as answer all questions from teams in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and other countries in the region.

When: December 5
Where: online

Demo Day & Central Asia Venture Conference 2025
UzVC invites founders, investors, and international partners to one of the most anticipated events of the year. The event will feature 16 startups from Uzbekistan and the region, as well as insights from leading venture funds and development institutions.

When: December 5
Where: Tashkent

IT Fest
A two-day event where participants can realize a project, build a team, or join an interesting startup in a short time. The festival includes hackathons, sections on cybersecurity, esports, design and animation, film and video, robotics, and startup battles. Participants create prototypes of their ideas, while experts and industry leaders share experience and trends for future services.

When: December 5-6
Where: Almaty, ATC “Atameken”

PromTech Hackathon
A three-day competition where participant teams create working product prototypes based on presented cases in a short time. Participants will be able to improve their programming skills, solve non-standard problems, defend their projects in front of potential partners and clients, and compete for a prize fund of 1,000,000 tenge.

When: December 5-7 at 14:00
Where: online / Karaganda, Terricon Valley 

GDG DevFest Tashkent 2025
The largest developer event in the MENA region, bringing together engineers, designers, and product teams around the theme of Building Safe, Secure, and Scalable Solutions with AI and Cloud. Participants can look forward to talks by Google Developer Experts, practical workshops, case studies on Generative AI, Cloud Architecture, Android, Flutter, Firebase, and ML, as well as a large community of professionals from around the world.

When: December 6 at 10:00
Where: Tashkent, Panorama Cinema Palace

Charity Hackathon InterHack 2025
Participants create digital solutions to help people with disabilities, support low-income families, protect the environment, and promote accessible education. Teams of up to five people can compete for a prize fund: 15,000, 10,000, and 5,000 som. Throughout the hackathon, participants receive advice from experts: doctors, IT coordinators, and business analysts.

When: December 6-7 at 09:30
Where: Bishkek, Atlabyte

BI Synergy Sprint
BI Group and Activat VC are launching BI Living Ecosystem — an ecosystem for startups and companies creating technologies and services for convenient home management, resident services, and everyday life. Participants are offered opportunities to implement AI and IoT solutions, automation platforms, digital building twins, community services, marketplaces, and services for resident convenience. Selected teams will present their solutions at the Demo Day in Astana.

Application deadline: December 7

Startup Roast
A closed startup roast event, Startup Roast, where selected startups will present short pitches and key metrics of their projects. Expert Denis Kalyshkin, Investment Director at I2BF Global Ventures, will conduct a detailed analysis and provide professional recommendations.

When: December 10
Where: Tashkent

Mentoring at AI500!
The largest hackathon in Uzbekistan, where teams from across the country will create AI solutions. The goal of the hackathon is to inspire participants to develop practical projects with artificial intelligence. Participation requires your presence on this day and experience in IT or related fields.

When: December 13
Where: Tashkent, 13 Babur St.

Free Program From Zero to Defender 2.0
An online program and paid internship for future Blue Team specialists. Participants will receive basic cybersecurity knowledge from experts, work through real practical cases, and have the opportunity to complete an internship with potential employment. Training starts on January 15, 2026, lasts four to six months, and is conducted in Russian and Uzbek.

Application deadline: December 15 

Program for Startups Entering the Chinese Market
Khan Tengri Innovation Hub, together with Hong Kong–Shenzhen Innovation & Technology Park, opens a direct path to the Chinese market for startups in Central Eurasia: teams from Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan can participate in top incubation programs SPIN, IGNITE, and GAS with grants up to HK$6 million, free offices and laboratories — without giving up equity.

Application deadline: December 26

China Calling: Pitch Your Startup to Chinese VCs
Khan Tengri Innovation Hub is launching a series of online pitching sessions for startups in Central Eurasia to venture funds in Hong Kong and mainland China. The opportunity provides direct access to capital, feedback on product market readiness, networking and partnerships, as well as preparation for offline scaling through acceleration programs and business missions in the GBA region.

Access to the Alem.Cloud Platform
The Alem.Cloud platform provides legal entities — from government organizations and research institutes to startups and private companies — with the opportunity to rent computing power from Kazakhstan’s national supercomputer, including GPUs, CPUs, RAM, and storage, for projects in AI, science, industry, energy, medicine, and other strategically important sectors.

Comprehensive Support from Startups DNA
The startup ecosystem, Startups DNA, helps turn ideas into market products. Participants will receive mentorship from experts, strategic, operational, and marketing support, technical assistance, access to an office and community, as well as capital from $5,000 to $100,000 at the Pre-Seed stage for accelerated launch and scaling.