Start-ups - The Times Of Central Asia

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Women entrepreneurs

From Coasters to Code: Bermet Koshoeva’s Leap into Tech Entrepreneurship

Five years ago, spotting Kyrgyz tech entrepreneurs in global accelerators was almost unheard of. Even locally, tech founders were rare. Fast forward to today, and it feels like Kyrgyz innovators are making their mark, especially at Antler. Last year, the global startup accelerator welcomed several Kyrgyz founders in its Vietnam and Malaysia cohorts. Among them is Bermet Koshoeva, a marketing professional turned tech entrepreneur with her startup, Onion. An Unconventional Path Koshoeva’s path to becoming a founder is far from traditional. Her early years followed a familiar trajectory, earning a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Turkey’s Fatih University and working in marketing roles. Things took a unique turn when she pursued a Master’s degree in Agriculture through the prestigious Erasmus Mundus Programme, studying in Denmark and France. The agricultural focus was symbolic, as both her father and grandfather worked in the sector. However, Koshoeva’s studies steered her in a different direction. During her Master’s thesis, Koshoeva had her first entrepreneurial experience. While exploring investment opportunities, she stumbled upon the potential for sellers on Amazon. With an initial investment of $1,000, she started selling mug coasters and managed to turn it into $2,500. “When my studies were coming to an end, I wondered what I would do next and how I would earn a living,” Koshoeva told The Times of Central Asia. “I wasn’t emotionally ready to jump into a full-time job after such an intense academic experience, so I decided to invest in something.” Her Amazon success, combined with her professional marketing background, established Koshoeva as a local marketing expert. She shared her expertise as both a professional consultant and an educator, teaching marketing at the American University of Central Asia and serving as the Head of Creative Business at Compass College, the first art and design college in Central Asia. Onion’s Mission Koshoeva founded Onion in October 2024, originally envisioning it as a platform for collecting and analyzing qualitative research data, such as interviews and surveys. This aligned closely with her marketing background. However, a pivotal experience at Antler Malaysia in April 2025 led her to refine Onion’s focus. During the accelerator program, she pivoted to addressing AI-powered search optimization. The new direction positions Onion in a rapidly evolving space as search trends shift away from traditional Google results to AI-driven tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity. These emerging tools are still refining their contextual accuracy, but they represent the future. Onion helps brands become visible in these AI-powered searches, ensuring they appear when it matters most. Challenges and Vision Although Antler Malaysia eventually decided not to invest in Onion, Koshoeva is determined to push forward. Her analytical skills, honed over years of market research, are guiding her through this emerging niche. “In recent years, I’ve conducted extensive market analyses across various industries, including IT and SaaS,” Koshoeva told TCA. “Through research, I’ve identified a promising niche that’s only beginning to take shape. While not everyone sees its potential yet — even Antler wasn’t ready to invest — I’m...

Start-ups

Central Asia Startup Cup: A Call for Regional Unity Through Innovation

There has been a significant growth in tech events in Central Eurasia throughout the last few years. Several years back you would only see these on a national level, it is hard to find something that isn’t regional these days. There is the Central Eurasian Venture Forum, the largest regional venture capital forum, which will take place on June 5 this year in Kazakhstan, which is also home to Digital Almaty and Digital Bridge. Tashkent has its ICT Week on September 23-26, 2025. Tajikistan hosts the Startupstan Summit, Georgia has the Central Eurasia Venture Summit, Azerbaijan the Baku ID & INMerge, and the list goes on. At the end of last month, Bishkek hosted the Central Asia Startup Cup, the largest tech conference to date in the Kyrgyz Republic focused on startups and venture capital. As reflected in the name of the event, the country is not an exception and is following the trend of regional cooperation. The keynote speaker came from the UK, Kyrgyz Republic-born Asel Sartbaeva, the CEO and Co-Founder of EnsiliTech, a startup with a technology that allows vaccines and other biopharmaceuticals to be stored and transported at room temperature. Aside from her keynote speech and presentation, Sartbaeva also participated in a panel session devoted to female founders. For the first time in the history of the Kyrgyz Republic, there were a huge array of venture capital investors — apart from domestic investors, the Central Asia Startup Cup hosted venture capital funds from Georgia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkey, the UK, and Uzbekistan. The government’s interest in the startup ecosystem is also growing — a memorandum of cooperation was signed between Accelerate Prosperity, the organizing party of the conference, and the Ministry of Digital Development of the Kyrgyz Republic. Also, for the first time, the regional final of the Startup World Cup, organized in partnership with Pegasus Tech Ventures (USA), was held as a part of the Central Asia Startup Cup. The latter is a global contest with 100+ regional events held across North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia, with each regional winner competing in the final in Silicon Valley. Porte Tech, a startup from Kazakhstan providing digital concierge solutions for hotels, was selected for the Startup World Cup Grand Final in San Francisco and will compete in for a $1,000,000 investment fund in October 2025. A traditional part of such tech conferences, the Startup Battle took place on the second day of the Central Asia Startup Cup, with eight teams reaching the finals. The Grand Prix of the conference and an equity-free prize of $10,000 were awarded to ArtSkin, a Kyrgyz hardware startup developing artificial skin for prosthetic limbs. Seven teams were also recognized with cash prizes of €5,000 each from the European Union's Last-mile Connectivity to Promote Digital Green Education Opportunities project: Nomado, Tez Jumush, Sound Vision, Edu Test, WeSave, TilZone, and The Tech. VoiceDiary, an AI companion for emotional support, received a trip to Silicon Valley as part of the Dive into Silicon...

Start-ups

Are Innovative Industries One of the Kyrgyz Republic’s Opportunities to Prosper?

The emergence of AI is considered by many to be a major tectonic shift, much like the emergence of the internet in its time. It is hard to overestimate the role innovation plays in our lives, with founders all over the world trying to pioneer our way out of the next problem. At first glance, the Kyrgyz Republic’s tech sector does not represent anything particularly meaningful. The chances of the small landlocked country - the farthest from any ocean in the world, which is the most affordable mode of shipping mode - integrating into innovative global ecosystems on its own seem wholly unrealistic. However, if we look at the dynamics of development in its tech sector, the potential is there. Is there a chance that the Kyrgyz Republic can become a part of the global tech scene? [caption id="attachment_30359" align="aligncenter" width="1440"] Image: The World in Maps[/caption] According to Ashley Vance at Bloomberg, “It’s about a landlocked nation, one with very few natural resources, hoping to gen up a tech industry on the fly.” The Kyrgyz startup ecosystem is clearly in its nascent stages, meaning that you haven’t heard about the Kyrgyz Skype. Yet. The country’s position in the Global Innovation Index in 2024 is 99th, up from 106th in 2023. The Global Startup Ecosystem Index, meanwhile, has the Kyrgyz Republic lower than 100th place in its 2024 ranking, down from 99th in 2023. “The country has maintained second position in Central Asia and seventh in the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation Program (CAREC) business region,” according to this index. The Kyrgyz Republic’s VC ranking of 103rd in the Venture Capital & Private Equity Country Attractiveness has barely changed over the last couple of years. When compared to peer group economies, it is obvious that the Kyrgyz Republic needs significant improvements in the depth of the capital market, social environment, entrepreneurial opportunities, and economic activity. [caption id="attachment_30358" align="aligncenter" width="1796"] Image: Venture Capital & Private Equity Country Attractiveness Index 2023[/caption] In terms of the number of venture capital deals, the Kyrgyz Republic is still lagging behind its neighbors. Out of $110+ million of venture capital funding in the region in 2023, the Kyrgyz contribution was only a fraction at $1.1 million. In 2024, this increased to $1.7 million, however, with the country's first venture capital law soon to be adopted. [caption id="attachment_30357" align="aligncenter" width="826"] Image Venture Capital in Central Asia 2024[/caption] The High Technology Park of the Kyrgyz Republic, which is a special tax regime for IT companies targeting exports, is demonstrating a steady growth, with its revenue expanding from under a million in 2013, to a more impressive $130 Million in 2024. The park’s residents are mostly companies providing IT outsourcing for developed markets, but the signs of a turn towards launching their own IT products are there. A separate world-first Creative Industries Park has also been set up to support the country's creative industries, including startups. When it comes to the largest Kyrgyz startups, they are founded by Kyrgyz nationals,...

Start-ups

Kyrgyz Startup Yessa Helping Women to Reclaim Pleasure

When Begaiym Zamirbek left her job at the Institute for War & Peace Reporting (IWPR), where everything was stable and predictable, she dove into the significantly riskier world of startups with her new venture, Yessa. That’s how her path of entrepreneurship began, which led her to Vietnam. Yessa supplies audio erotic entertainment for women, like companies including Quinn and Femtasy. Both boast a vast audience and have raised over $3 Million in investments. Quinn is based in the U.S., and its European counterpart, Femtasy, operates out of Berlin. Neither are available in languages other than English, French, and Deutsch, however. But Yessa is trying to fix that by making audio erotica for women available in other languages. My previous partner “did things in bed that I agreed to unconditionally. I didn't even know I had a choice,” Zamirbek told TCA. “I came out of that relationship traumatized and didn't realize, but after the breakup, any thought of sex made me feel disgusted. I accidentally came across an audio where the men were caring, tender and asked for my consent for literally everything. I thought that if such audios exist, then there must be such partners in reality. And I was not mistaken. I regretted that all such content was in English, and then I thought that Russian-speaking women also need such things.”Apart from her full-time job at IWPR, Zamirbek is a seasoned podcast host. Her podcast, Second Shift, which she has been co-hosting for five years, was the first feminist podcast in Kyrgyzstan and quickly became one of the most popular ones. That experience set her on the path toward the launch of her audio company. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Zamirbek spent a lot of time at home listening to erotica in English, which piqued her interest in exploring her desires and going on dates. In 2024, inspired by TikTok, where more and more women were openly discussing the intimate details of their relationships, she began implementing her startup idea. After seeking advice from a venture capital professional and completing the Y Combinator’s Startup School, Zamirbek started looking for a tech co-founder. “We met at the March 8 march for women's rights in Bishkek. Anna Karamurzina came up to say ‘hello’ because she knew of me. She had worked in IT for over twelve years, and I came to her with an offer to build a startup just when she needed a job. Since August 2024, we’ve been the co-founders of the Yessa app.” The ex-IWPR Program Manager for Central Asia began her journey in the startup ecosystem by participating in the Startup Nation hackathon as the Co-Founder of Yessa in September 2024, where she was awarded a special prize as the strongest startups chosen from over 40 teams. Zamirbek soon realized that she needed resources and expertise to scale Yessa and followed the path of one of the Kyrgyz founders of Antler, one of the leading global accelerators backing early-stage companies with offices worldwide. With the help of several...

Start-ups

Bridging Borders: Louis Albertini on Central Asia’s Tech Growth, Startup Challenges, and Building Global Connections

Louis Albertini has been involved in technology and startups across the United States and Kazakhstan for a decade, working with Silicon Valley and venture capital-backed startups based in Kazakhstan, including ORBI and Farel. He is passionate about supporting founders in succeeding in the U.S. market and building connections between the U.S. and Kazakhstan. TCA spoke with Louis to gain insights from his experiences in the Kazakhstan market. TCA: Can you share your career journey in Kazakhstan and what motivated you to work in diverse roles like marketing, consulting, and startups? Louis: I arrived in Kazakhstan in July 2015 as a Princeton in Asia fellow and spent a year working in the President's Office at KIMEP University with Dr. Chan Young Bang. I served as his communications officer, writing official correspondence, liaising with different departments, and managing the day-to-day affairs of the office. After my PiA fellowship ended, I decided to stay in Almaty and start exploring the nascent startup scene. In 2016, I joined the founding team of a startup called ORBI, which developed 360-degree video recording glasses. This was the first Kazakhstani startup that attracted significant venture financing and was invited to interview at Y Combinator in 2016. We raised about $7 million for the company and secured $350 thousand in pre-orders, the largest ever for a Kazakh start-up. Back then, the YC batches were extremely small, and interviews were conducted in person at their historic but now-closed 320 Pioneer Way office in Mountain View. This was my first applied experience with Kazakhstan startups, and I've been involved ever since. TCA: What inspired you to create Redfern Partners, and how did you help address the challenges SMBs and tech companies face in Central Asia? Louis: Working at the American Chamber of Commerce gave me some insight into the market research landscape in Kazakhstan, primarily by listening to business leaders complain about available options. Besides the major consulting firms like McKinsey and BCG, which are more focused on quasi-state projects that need stamps of approval, the SMB space for high-quality independent research was largely empty. The Big 4 have variations of market research services, but their core specialty is audit and tax. Most local incumbents were formed in the early 1990s and use outdated methodologies that produce inaccurate or trivial insights. International research firms lack local coverage and rely on a loose patchwork of freelancers. Redfern was formed to offer high-quality, independent market research services to fill this void. We completed about twenty projects and continue to be a partner for the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) small business initiative. TCA: What common mistakes did you see SMBs in the region make, and how did you help them overcome these? Louis: The SMB space in Kazakhstan is hugely underserved and overlooked, offering the largest surface area regarding technology adoption. In the US, SMBs employ nearly half of the American workforce, representing 45% of America's GDP. In Kazakhstan, the market is mainly asymmetrical, with large players...

Digitalization

Kazakh AI Startup Enters U.S. and Japanese Transportation Markets

Astana-based startup Call2action.ai, a resident of the Astana Hub International Technology Park, is making strides in the US market. Currently, over 40 transportation companies in the United States have expressed an interest in the startup’s product. Two companies have already become commercial clients, and three others are engaged in pilot projects. Call2action.ai has developed the world’s first SaaS solution based on Generative Artificial Intelligence for automating hiring in the transportation and logistics sectors. This innovative platform streamlines the hiring process, making it more efficient and cost-effective. Following the successful validation of its project hypotheses, Call2action.ai has launched an investment round and entered negotiations with venture capital funds and business angels, some of whom are already supporting the startup and planning investments. “The American market is vastly different from the Kazakh market, but its potential for revolutionizing hiring processes is enormous,” said Ersultan Dzhusakinov, CEO and co-founder of Call2action.ai. “Participation in the Silicon Valley Residency Program, supported by Astana Hub and the Ministry of Digitalization, has allowed us to accelerate our progress in Silicon Valley. Within a few months, we’ve secured contracts with two companies, three pilot projects, and attracted interest from major Japanese corporations like Persol Group and Mitsui Group. We expect our product to reach a valuation of $1 billion in the coming years.” The startup collaborates with US innovation hubs, including the Silkroad Innovation Hub, and actively participates in international trade shows such as TechCrunch Disrupt and CESV 2024. Additionally, Call2action.ai has been selected to join Mitsui Group’s accelerator program, which begins in 2025. Call2action.ai is among 22 Central Asian startups that participated in accelerator programs in Silicon Valley under the AlchemistX and Silicon Valley Residency Program initiatives. These programs were organized by Astana Hub and Silkroad Innovation Hub, with support from the World Bank and FPIP projects. Kazakhstani startups are becoming competitive on global markets. For example: • ZebraEye project, led by Yana Ten, specializes in diagnosing ophthalmic diseases using artificial intelligence and attracted investor attention at Web Summit Qatar 2024. • ClickLog, which develops freight optimization software, has established companies in Estonia and Poland to target European markets. • Dereknet plans to expand into the Middle East and Europe, including Kuwait, Qatar, Norway, the UK, and the US.