Kazakhstani startup OneVision has raised $100,000 in investment at a valuation of $1 million.

Investments were successfully raised during the Investment Readiness Accelerator program at MOST Ventures. The Tech interviewed OneVision startup founder Igor Yema.

Tell us about your product and how it differs from others, such as Kaspi?

• Our unique selling proposition lies in the balance between loyalty, price, and product quality. Thanks to our solution architecture and services such as multi-acquiring, smart payment routing, and an adaptive anti-fraud system, we emphasize security and fault tolerance. OneVision offers a wide range of online payment services: card payments and payouts, QR payments, and tokenized payments. OneVision is working on implementing innovative, complementary services for its clients.

What is the principle behind your product’s operation?

• We primarily focus on product quality and payment conversion rates. “Conversion” refers to the ratio of successful to failed payments. The higher the conversion rate for each of our products, the easier and faster individuals can pay for goods or services from our partners.

What motivated you to create OneVision? Were you inspired by foreign examples or something else?

• We always wanted to create something greater than what we could achieve while working at other companies. There were moments when my colleagues and I created products, but we were told they had no future or profitability; we had a different opinion. Now we can build the product we have always dreamed of. I have always had the ambition to prove that I can achieve more. My family fuels this ambition. My father always believed that I would achieve great success in life. He was naturally disappointed that I did not obtain a higher education, but that did not stop him from believing in me. My older brother always supported him, offering unique but effective ways to help me become the best version of myself, both in work and in sports and studies. And my wife, who has always supported me, helped me start my professional path in fintech.

How many people are involved in creating your product? Tell us about your team.

• My partners and I have been working in the internet acquiring market for quite a long time. Each of us is a professional in our respective fields. Our staff now numbers more than 15 people. They include qualified developers, a multidisciplinary commercial team, as well as lawyers with extensive experience in the financial sector and international law, analysts, and financiers. We see that we can create a truly good product—we have sufficient experience, expertise, and knowledge. It is rare for a group of people to share a single vision for creating a good product. Hence the name “OneVision”: One team - One vision.

What did your participation in the MOST accelerator give you?

• Thanks to the MOST accelerator, we raised our professional standards and received expert advice on how to develop the startup further and in which direction to seek growth. Let me give a simple example: MOST recommended that we look into working with the Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC), and there we saw a large number of projects in which we could participate. At the AIFC, VC Support has been very helpful to us, connecting us with other departments. Also, as part of the accelerator, I met many interesting projects that could potentially become our partners in business development. Our tracker expanded our vision regarding the development directions of one of our products and suggested how we could scale it.

What are your further plans for development?

• We are improving our own solution. We are also very interested in developing new solutions, such as working with cryptocurrency, etc. We plan to expand our influence in the Kazakhstani market and scale into the markets of Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. We are also focused on participating in projects jointly with the AIFC.

Can we say that the saying “one man is no warrior” applies to startup projects? That is, to become successful, does it necessarily require external support: an accelerator, mentor, etc.?

• This is not a panacea or a mandatory requirement. As international practice shows, especially top accelerators such as the American Y Combinator, 500 Startups, Techstars, or in Central Asia, MOST—startups that go through an accelerator grow at least faster, attract funding, and make fewer mistakes. The word “accelerator” comes from “accelerate.” What needs to be accelerated for a startup? Only growth. The accelerator provides exactly that growth, offering all the necessary basic support in the form of education, closing certain educational gaps for founders through mentoring. Participation in an accelerator helps bring together a concentration of mentors, experts, and industry specialists in one place. Startup founders do not run around wasting time building these connections in a market where they are not yet known; instead, they get all of this within the accelerator. And the third component is the tracker, who will help the startup grow its metrics week after week. This is a methodology that is hard to find in the market, but a startup finds it within the program. All of this indicates that going through an accelerator is highly desirable for startups because it helps them grow and attract funding faster, as happened with the OneVision startup.

In November, the next cohort of the Investment Readiness Accelerator will start at MOST Ventures. Which solutions will be in focus this time?

• As a fund, we do not tie ourselves to a specific sector. Based on our 10 years of experience, we see that very interesting, cool, technological projects come from various sectors, so we try to look broadly to avoid missing projects that need our support. I can confidently say that we will be interested in looking at startups in fintech, HR tech, e-commerce, and retail tech, but we are also ready to consider other sectors. In general, we are open to everyone, as long as they meet the basic criteria we communicate to the market.

What criteria do you look at, besides the stage of development?

• We look at the startup team from the perspective of whether it possesses the necessary competencies to deliver what it declares. If the team is building a startup in the field of artificial intelligence or machine learning, we want to ensure that the team understands both the business and technical aspects. The second criterion is that we look at the product from the standpoint of the chosen problem and the proposed solution. We always try to figure out whether there is actually a problem or if it has been imagined by the founder, and we look quite skeptically at the solution they propose. Therefore, from a product perspective, it is important for us that both the problem and the solution are real. The third criterion is that in the Investment Readiness Accelerator, it is important for the team to have traction, meaning there must be numbers in the form of revenue, number of active users, and orders. This is proof that the product is in demand. Fourth, we look at the market size; if the market is large, there is room to grow. From a development perspective, I want to note that we do not work with projects at the idea stage; we work with already growing projects, at least having an MVP and proof that there is demand for them.

Are there qualities that particularly attract you in startups? Speaking of previous selections, what stood out first?

• We look at the team and the founder. Since we are a fund supporting early-stage startup investments, much depends on the team. Founders must be driven by results and focused on the long game. We look at the technological component: it is important that the startup does something that is difficult to reproduce. We understand that it is difficult to invent something new and genius, but we must remember that the world’s race is not only for knowledge and technologies but also for business models. The team must know the uniqueness of the startup and its competitiveness in the global market.

Can you highlight the main mistakes made by participants based on the experience of previous selections?

• There are three basic mistakes. The first is the inability to package one’s product. One must simply be able to convey the idea in simple language to show the investor or customer the value of the product. Teams need to spend more time studying the product approach and product packaging.
• The second is the use of the customer development methodology; this is when a startup knows how to engage the market and customers at a stage when it only has an MVP. There must be an understanding of how to make fewer mistakes in the future using tools such as problem interviews, surveys, etc.
• The third is the startup’s inability to move very quickly and test hypotheses operationally, at least 5-10 times a week, to understand whether the product has found its market. I often observe that startups may test not ten, but say, two hypotheses a week. This is unacceptable because the team is building a startup and a venture story, and a venture story is precisely about exponential growth, which cannot be achieved if you move slowly and do not test the maximum number of hypotheses.

What do you see as the final result of the program?

• I see at least two indicators: the first is a significant increase in the key metrics of startups participating in the program. The second metric is the maximum number of participants receiving pre-seed investments. This can be a proposed check from the fund itself, as happened with some startups in the first cohort, or an offer from other partners, angels, or investors. This will be proof of the startup’s growth potential.

What practical benefits can be highlighted for startups that reach the final stage?

• It should be noted that we do not have a classic acceleration program. We do not provide basic knowledge; we are point-focused on two goals. The first is to package startups and lead them to investments, which is why the program is called Investment Readiness Accelerator. We provide only those topics that allow packaging your startup: investment search strategy, finance, and marketing strategies. The second is so-called growth hacking—the use of rapid growth tools. We provide three blocks in the program that help achieve these two goals—packaging and growth. The first is the educational part, provided by professional practitioners and successful entrepreneurs. The second part is mentoring, where mentors are not only experts and entrepreneurs but also active investors. This is very convenient because startups receive feedback from active investors who can ask uncomfortable questions, helping founders refine their business and product. And the third element is networking—our network of participants, successful graduates, experts, entrepreneurs, investors, and corporations allows startups to build a level of connections in just 2-3 months of the program that they would otherwise build over years.

What is changing in the startup world against the backdrop of the pandemic, and which industries will become more in demand in your opinion?

• I would definitely highlight fintech. Everything related to neobanks, various types of payments, and wallets is currently trending. After the pandemic, it will become standard not to visit physical banks but to use neobanks and conduct the same operations online. The second sector is health tech. It has different stages of development from market to market, but everything related to online healthcare is becoming increasingly relevant. This includes solutions ranging from digitizing clinics and telemedicine to ordinary consumer apps for reminders to take medication, online yoga classes, etc. Everything that grew around health and medtech has exploded in trends. The third is edtech. I observe digital solutions in education in many sectors, such as where to find courses, marketplaces, or how to take tests, but I would like someone to propose a solution in between, because the conversion rate of people who start courses and finish them is very small—maximum 5%. Interesting solutions are already appearing that motivate people to complete courses. Fourth, e-commerce; everything is moving online—shopping, deliveries, payments, aggregators, etc. And as an addition to what I am currently observing, HRtech—everything related to hiring people, retaining them, and various forms of employee gamification.