IT - The Times Of Central Asia

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Kazakhstan Adds Over 4,000 New IT Companies in Two Years Amid Tech Boom

Kazakhstan’s IT sector has seen rapid expansion, with the number of registered IT companies surpassing 18,600 by the end of 2024, a 16% increase over three years, according to the Ministry of Digital Development, Innovations and Aerospace Industry (MDDIAI). In 2022, the country had around 14,000 IT firms. The surge is attributed in large part to the development of the Astana Hub international technopark, which now hosts more than 1,700 resident companies. Kazakhstan has also launched 19 regional IT hubs and established international platforms in Saudi Arabia, the United States, the United Kingdom, Dubai, and China. Astana Hub, Central Asia’s largest IT startup technopark, has attracted over 336 billion tenge ($624 million) in investments since its launch in 2018. This growth has been supported by state tax incentives totaling 130 billion tenge ($241 million). In 2024, Astana Hub residents generated 620 billion tenge ($1.33 billion) in revenue, accounting for more than half of Kazakhstan’s total IT sector revenue, which reached 1.2 trillion tenge ($2.2 billion). Export earnings contributed 140 billion tenge ($260 million). Looking ahead, the government aims to raise IT service exports to $1 billion by 2026. Support programs include AI’preneurs and the Silk Way Accelerator, which is operated in partnership with Google. More than 40 Kazakhstani startups have taken part in accelerator programs in Silicon Valley through collaborations with AlchemistX, Draper University, and the Silkroad Innovation Hub. The Tech Orda initiative aims to train 100,000 IT professionals by 2025. In parallel, the AI Qyzmet program, the first of its kind in Central Eurasia, focuses on equipping civil servants with skills in artificial intelligence to modernize public administration. Kazakhstan is also building out a national AI ecosystem. The Alem.AI International Center for Artificial Intelligence will offer research and training opportunities, while AlemLLM, the country’s largest Kazakh-language large language model, is now available to startups, academic institutions, and private companies. In July, Kazakhstan launched alem.cloud, Central Asia’s most powerful supercomputer cluster, designed to support AI development and deployment.

IT Silicon Valley Kyrgyzstan

Kyrgyzstan Makes Inroads into Silicon Valley

On a visit to San Francisco (USA) on April 21, Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Kyrgyz Republic Akylbek Japarov was guest of honour at the opening of the High Technology Park (HTP) House of the Kyrgyz Republic in Silicon Valley. Speaking at the event which brought together Kyrgyz IT specialists working in international technology corporations, the prime minister, emphasized the state’s readiness to support IT initiatives and the Cabinet of Ministers’ goal to make Kyrgyzstan a centre of excellence for the development of the industry: “All of you, young people, working in international IT companies are the pride of our country. Your innovation, talent and dedication make us stronger and more competitive on the world stage. It would be great if we could attract your companies to open development centres in Kyrgyzstan. We believe in you, in your capabilities and are ready to support you at every stage of your path to success.” During meetings with IT corporations at the head offices of Apple Inc., the Nvidia Corporation, and Hewlett-Packard, the Kyrgyz delegation led by Akylbek Japarov, focused on prospects afforded by collaboration to enable the government to fulfil its plans to create an IT park in Kyrgyzstan.

Uzum Deal Makes It Uzbekistan’s First Tech ‘Unicorn’

A digital ecosystem called Uzum has become Uzbekistan's first tech 'unicorn' -- a pre-IPO company with a valuation of over $1 billion -- by attracting investment of more than $100 million this month. The bulk of this capital was put up by a Californian company, FinSight Ventures. Uzum, founded by Jasur Jumaev, the co-founder of KupiKupon, and Boris Dobrodeyev, the former CEO of the Russian social network VKontakte, provides e-commerce services and banking projects for individuals and small and medium-sized businesses through a superapp. The investors will hold stakes of less than 5% apiece, while Uzum's overall valuation has reached over $1.1 billion. Under the structure of the deal, the equity capital investment amounted to more than $50 million, and another $50 million was raised earlier in the form of loans. Prior to that, the founders had planned to raise $300 million. "We still plan to raise about $300 million during this year, but we have divided the round into two parts. This is the first one. The second part is already with the participation of funds from the Middle East, the UK and the U.S.," Jumaev said. The company has aggressive plans: to launch Uzbekistan's largest logistics complex for e-commerce, which will increase its turnover by 2.5 times and expand the area of warehouses to 500,000 square meters, and an increase in the number of order delivery points. By the end of 2023, Uzum had 10 million monthly users, and its e-commerce revenue exceeded $150 million. The next step for the first Uzbek tech unicorn will be an IPO, which is scheduled for 2026. According to Jumaev, the company is "considering all possibilities for optimal capital raising. One of the scenarios is to enter the Tashkent Stock Exchange and/or the Abu Dhabi Stock Exchange with parallel placements on Western markets." FinSight Ventures believes that Uzum is a national leader in key business verticals such as fintech and e-commerce, which in the future will allow it to follow the example of Kaspi.kz, from neighboring Kazakhstan, and become the standalone leader of Uzbekistan's tech market. According to the international auditing company KPMG, Uzbekistan is showing very strong economic growth: the country's GDP growth for 2023 was 6%, and by 2030, under the strategy "Uzbekistan-2030," overall GDP may reach $160 billion. Uzbekistan's e-commerce is the fastest growing in Central Asia, forecasted to reach $1.8-$2.2 billion by 2027. That potential is attracting major online retail players to the country: the Russian company Wildberries has been operating in Uzbekistan since 2022, and Ozon, also of Russia, entered Uzbekistan in November 2023. In this context, burgeoning national champion Uzum has a solid chance at becoming the largest retailer in the country as early as next year.

SCO IT

Almaty Hosts First SCO Digital Forum

The first SCO Digital Forum, bringing together IT and communication agencies from countries within the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), was held in Almaty on February 1st. The forum is part of the three-day Digital Almaty 2024 event that began today. The SCO comprises China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Pakistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. The forum was chaired by Kazakhstan’s minister of digital development, innovations and aerospace industry, Bagdat Musin. In his welcoming remarks Mr Musin said that "Kazakhstan has achieved significant success in the field of digitalization, GovTech, and IT development, confidently leading among the Central Asian countries." Mr Musin highlighted the successful Kazakhstani IT startups at the international techno-park Astana Hub. "The advantage and attractiveness of Astana Hub to international companies lie in visa and tax preferences, extraterritoriality, the possibility of online registration, and the launch of acceleration programs. Among the Central Asian [countries], Astana Hub [has become] the first partner of Google for Startups, within which a joint acceleration program 'Silkway Accelerator' was developed. Over the course of two years of collaboration, the result is a twofold increase in the number of graduate companies; these companies have already entered the markets of the Middle East, the USA, and Europe.”. Mr Musin proposed the creation of an alliance of IT parks in SCO countries to further grow innovative ecosystems, and to support startup projects and IT companies. Another area for cooperation could be the construction of fiber-optic communication lines. Utilizing Kazakhstan's transit potential will provide significant advantages for SCO countries in connecting to the internet and improving connectivity across the Eurasian continent, Mr Musin said. He proposed building fiber-optic cables along the Russia-Kazakhstan-Iran route, with access to the Indian Ocean.