Yoshlar Ventures launches a mentorship program featuring startup founders from Silicon Valley

The state early-stage venture fund Yoshlar Ventures announced the launch of a new mentorship program that will connect leading startups in Uzbekistan with entrepreneurs from Silicon Valley. From August 17 to 22, 2026, four founders of technology companies from the United States will visit Uzbekistan to work with local startups.

The program will be one of the first large-scale projects in which founders from Silicon Valley will work directly with Uzbek entrepreneurs.

Abdullaziz Yakubov, CEO of Yoshlar Ventures
Our founders have always had talent and ambition. What they lacked was the opportunity to communicate with people who have already built world-class companies. This program is not an attempt to transplant Silicon Valley into Tashkent. We are creating conditions under which entrepreneurs who are already showing strong results can learn from those who have walked this path before.

Over the course of five days, program participants will work with invited mentors on investment strategy, product-market fit, and market entry. The program includes workshops, individual consultations, and practical sessions.

Selected startups operate in the fields of robotics, physical artificial intelligence, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity solutions, developer tools, technologies for regulated industries, digital health, and AI-native SaaS. Companies are at various stages of development — from MVP to first paying customers and annual revenue exceeding $1 million.

The invited mentors represent the San Francisco startup ecosystem. Among them are graduates of MIT, UC Berkeley, and San Jose State University who have raised between $1 million and $11 million in funding for their companies.

Yasin Ehsan, CEO of Headstarter Inc.
I have worked with hundreds of early-stage startups through Headstarter, and I was surprised by how similar the core principles of building a business are everywhere. Founders in Tashkent make decisions quickly, know how to work efficiently with limited resources, and are less overconfident than many entrepreneurs in the US. What they lack is not skills, but access to the international ecosystem. That is exactly why I decided to participate in this program.

The new program continues a series of initiatives by Yoshlar Ventures aimed at integrating Uzbek startups into the international venture ecosystem and expanding their access to global investors, capital, and expertise.

About Yoshlar Ventures

Yoshlar Ventures is a $10 million state fund investing in Pre-Seed and Seed stage startups founded by entrepreneurs from Uzbekistan, regardless of the country where their business is developing. The fund invests up to $400,000 in a single project and helps portfolio companies attract international capital, enter new markets, and scale their business. By 2027, Yoshlar Ventures plans to increase the size of the fund to $30 million and build a portfolio of 30 companies.

For more information, visit yoshlarventures.uz.