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DOWNLOAD PRESENTATION ON NEW OPPORTUNITIES FOR WOMEN FROM UZBEKISTAN |
In course of the two last decades, we are witnessing fast growth of the IT industry in Eurasia and it is just natural that besides the traditional for this region outsourcing companies the other components of the IT ecosystem started to evolve – the venture funds, accelerators, and incubators. One of these relatively new institutions for the countries of Eurasia are the business angels – individuals who invest their own funds in IT projects at the initial stage of their development. To what extent is this institution already developed, and what new prospects do business angels open up for the IT industry? These topics were discussed within the StrategEast.Live panel “Business Angels for Eurasian Startups”.
Ismina Mavlyankrieva, Startup Ecosystem Support Manager, IT PARK, Uzbekistan spoke about the increased attention to women entrepreneurship in the Park. More than 200 women entrepreneurs have access to the Tumaris. Tech educational program, which includes a business angel school. School of Business Angels received 250 applications, and more than 70 women entrepreneurs were trained and gained access to international mentors and investors.
Mansur Mamadjanov, International Operations Manager of the Investment and Export Office at IT PARK, Uzbekistan added: “One of the tasks of our Park is to convince as many international investors as possible to choose our country as a final destination for investment. This was the task that was set when we have created an ideal ecosystem for startups in the park, which not only helps women entrepreneurs but also, which is important for our country and industry, creates absolutely equal conditions for entrepreneurs of different genders, tackling gender inequality.”
Yevgeny Koren, Country Manager at Microsoft, Belarus pointed out: “When we talk about the seed or pre-seed stage, the main investments in Belarus are made by our IT companies, and so far it is quite rare to see that companies outside the industry would invest in IT to diversify their business. But speaking about the Belarusian startup ecosystem, it is important to emphasize that it is designed in such a way that, despite the political crisis in the country, it is not subject to political risks. Legally, startups are structured to avoid these risks. As a result, we can still say that our startup industry is experiencing a real boom. Belarusian startup concept has become a brand even in California.”
Mary Nemciuc, Ecosystem Builder at Tekwill | Startup Moldova shared experience on startup ecosystem building: “Since 2018, Tekwill’s Startup Moldova project has been collecting a complete database of Moldovan startups on its platform. We saw that the three most popular areas for startups in our country are FinTech, AgriTech and HealthTech. In each of these areas, we held meetups and hackathons, where startups offered solutions to the most important problems of local communities.”
Anuar Seifullin, Co-Founder of QazAngels, Kazakhstan talked about the activities of business angels in Kazakhstan: “We founded the first business angel club four years ago. Today there are already several such clubs in Kazakhstan, which speaks of the popularity of this kind of investment in our country. In addition to such traditional areas as FinTech, our business angels are also investing in such a new area as DeepTech – investments in startups based on new scientific achievements. In particular, I can single out one of the startups that analyzes ST using artificial intelligence. We work with funds from different countries of Southeast Asia, but recently the industry has been growing and more and more “angel” funds with Kazakh capital appear. We are talking about tens of millions of dollars that are being invested in pre-seed and other early-stage investments.”
The panel was moderated by Anatoly Motkin, President of StrategEast.
StrategEast.Live is a series of online panel discussions launched by StrategEast in 2020 to continue the conversation on how technology can lead to an overall transformation in Eurasia. During these events, the esteemed guests put forward ideas that facilitate the further development of a knowledge-driven economy in the region.
