Start-ups - The Times Of Central Asia

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Start-ups

Maksim Stepanenko’s Path from Kyrgyzstan to Silicon Valley

Maksim Stepanenko’s career has taken him from Aydarken in southern Kyrgyzstan to Silicon Valley. After co-founding Operator, an artificial intelligence startup acquired by OpenAI, he chose to step away rather than join the buyer. Stepanenko told The Times of Central Asia that he is now taking time off and working on new projects. From Aydarken to MIT Stepanenko was born in Aydarken, in Kyrgyzstan’s Batken region. Before entering university, he represented the country at the International Physics Olympiad. He received an honorable mention in Singapore in 2006, a silver medal in Iran in 2007, and a bronze in Vietnam in 2008. His route to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was not immediate. After his first application was unsuccessful, he spent almost a year studying in Germany before entering MIT in 2009 to study computer science. While there, he worked as an undergraduate research assistant at the MIT Media Lab. Early Engineering Roles Stepanenko graduated in 2012. His early experience included two summer internships at Google and a role as one of the first software engineers at Locu, a startup founded by MIT graduates. Locu helped local businesses manage their online listings. A business could update its information once and distribute the changes across services including Yelp and Facebook. GoDaddy acquired the company in August 2013 for a reported $70 million. In 2014, Stepanenko joined cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase as employee number 21. Over five years, his work included Coinbase Commerce and the USDC stablecoin, as well as Coinbase Ventures. “I graduated in 2012 and moved to [San Francisco] to work here, at a different startup. Around 2013-2014, I started spending more and more time on crypto – Bitcoin Talk was the popular forum at the time. I was finding it more and more interesting. And then, at some point, I decided I wanted to explore working full-time in this space. At that time, there wasn't really any legitimate company in the space. Coinbase was the only company that was already relatively well known, at least here in Silicon Valley. So, I ended up joining Coinbase,” Stepanenko previously told Compound. Co-Founding Primer In 2019, On Deck’s Erik Torenberg introduced Stepanenko to Ryan Delk. The two co-founded Primer, an education startup offering online learning activities and, later, small in-person schools. [caption id="attachment_59010" align="aligncenter" width="1774"] Ryan Delk (left) and Maksim Stepanenko (right)[/caption] Primer initially focused on homeschooling. During the COVID-19 pandemic, it developed online clubs where children could pursue shared interests and work together on projects. The company later allowed children to create and run their own clubs. It then developed microschools, combining small groups of students with in-person instruction and digital learning tools. The company’s history records expansion to Alabama in 2025 and Texas in 2026. Primer raised a $3.7 million seed round in 2020, led by Founders Fund. In April 2022, it announced a further $15 million round, led by Founders Fund and co-led by Khosla Ventures. Stepanenko left Primer in November 2022. “I decided to step away from the company after...

Start-ups

Central Asian Startups Go Global

Startups with their roots in Central Asia are increasingly building businesses for customers in the United States, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. International funds are investing hundreds of millions of dollars in these companies, founders are joining Y Combinator and other Silicon Valley programs, and some startups are moving their headquarters abroad while retaining development teams and ties to the region. Central Asian startups attracted a record $320 million in 2025. However, a large share of the funding was concentrated in just two deals: Higgsfield AI and Uzbekistan’s Uzum accounted for 61% of the total. Excluding them, the market amounted to $124.5 million, still 31% higher than in 2024. This points to two aspects of the current growth: venture capital in the region is already measured in hundreds of millions of dollars, but remains heavily concentrated in a handful of companies. Relatively small technology teams from Central Asia are incorporating in the United States, raising money from American investors, and selling products to global customers. Kazakh Roots, American Market So far, the trend is most visible in Kazakhstan. In 2025, venture investment in Kazakh startups reached $209 million, up from $71 million a year earlier, while the aggregate valuation of funded Kazakh startups stood at $2.16 billion. RISE Research also reported that U.S.-focused startups with Kazakh roots raised more than $214 million. One of the biggest examples is Higgsfield AI, whose co-founders include Uzbekistan-born Alex Mashrabov and Kazakhstan’s Yerzat Dulat. Based in San Francisco, the company develops AI tools for generating images and video. In August 2026, Higgsfield raised $400 million in a Series B round at a $5.4 billion valuation. The round was led by DST Global, with investors including Goldman Sachs Alternatives, Tribe Capital, Intel Capital, and other international funds. By then, the company had more than 30 million users. In September, Higgsfield said its technology was being used in campaigns for 390 Fortune 500 companies. Another route into the U.S. market runs through Y Combinator, one of Silicon Valley’s best-known startup accelerators. In 2025, three startups with Kazakhstani founders – Nozomio, Leaping AI, and Hillclimb – joined the program. Arlan Rakhmetzhanov’s Nozomio develops tools that help AI agents work with large software codebases. After Y Combinator, the company raised $6.2 million from CRV, BoxGroup, LocalGlobe, and other investors. Rakhmetzhanov began working on the project while still in school before moving its development to the United States. Leaping AI, whose co-founder and chief technology officer Arkadiy Telegin is from Kazakhstan, develops voice AI agents for businesses. The company went through Y Combinator, raised a $4.7 million seed round, and shifted its center of operations from Germany to San Francisco. Hillclimb, whose founders include Kazakhstan’s Ibrakhim Ustelbay, develops data and virtual environments for training AI models through reinforcement learning, in which an algorithm improves by receiving feedback on its actions. The U.S. market is also attracting startups outside Y Combinator. Kazakh entrepreneur Bakytzhan Dos is developing Nace.AI in the United States, a platform designed for complex enterprise workflows...

ICT Week Uzbekistan 2026

Golden Gate Ventures Plans Two-Year Program for Central Asian Startups in Uzbekistan

Singapore-based venture capital firm Golden Gate Ventures plans to launch a two-year program in Uzbekistan for 20 startup founders from across Central Asia, giving them access to mentors and the fund’s international network. Michael Lints, MENA founding partner at Golden Gate Ventures, announced the initiative during ICT Week Uzbekistan 2026, held in Tashkent from September 22 to 25. The program will be launched with IT Park Uzbekistan, while details of the application and selection process are expected later. Lints told The Times of Central Asia that Golden Gate Ventures had also opened an office in Tashkent in June and now plans to invest in Uzbek startups. “We have strong confidence in the potential of your country, the startup founders we are meeting here, and the companies they are building,” he said. “Last year, IT Park invited us, and one year later, we have our own office here.” The two-year program will connect the selected founders with Golden Gate Ventures’ network in Asia, the Middle East, the United States, and Europe. Lints said the fund sees Uzbekistan developing into an important startup center in Central Asia. Startups featured prominently at ICT Week this year. The event was promoted under the “Land of Startups” concept, with more than 50 startups presenting their products to investors and potential partners. ICT Week’s official program also brought venture investors, including Golden Gate Ventures, Gobi Partners, 500 Global, SparkLabs, and other funds to its Startup & Venture Summit. Farrukh Erkinov, Director of Startup and Venture Ecosystem Development at IT Park Uzbekistan, told TCA that the number of international investors and startup organizations attending events in Tashkent has changed considerably in recent years. “A conversation at a stand can later turn into an order, while a presentation can become an investment partnership,” Erkinov said. “A team that has created a product can meet, right here, the people who can help them develop it.” [caption id="attachment_57199" align="aligncenter" width="1774"] Alif, an international fintech company in Central Asia with projects in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Pakistan, has a banner where visitors write their names or the names of their projects; image: ТСА[/caption] Among the regional participants was AI Academy from Kyrgyzstan. Product manager Emir Satykenov said the academy trains students in data engineering, data analytics, data science, machine learning, and AI engineering. According to Satykenov, more than 1,000 students have studied at the academy, while its wider AI community includes more than 2,500 people. Some courses are free, including programs for women and people who cannot afford tuition, with grants provided by Kyrgyzstan’s High Technology Park. The academy is also connected with Kyrgyz AI Research, whose developers are building open-source AI models for Kyrgyz, Kazakh, and other Central Asian languages. “Our AI model can work in Kazakh, Kyrgyz, and other Central Asian languages,” Satykenov said. “We also have an LLM model for text-to-text and image generation, and we are creating many open-source models in Kyrgyzstan.” [caption id="attachment_57201" align="aligncenter" width="1774"] The Huawei exhibition stand at ICT Week Uzbekistan 2026. Image: TCA[/caption] Elsewhere...

AIRUN CEO Chingiz Arziev on Building Kyrgyzstan’s Sovereign AI

The Times of Central Asia was delighted to interview Chingiz Arziev, CEO of AIRUN a Kyrgyzstan-based company developing AI infrastructure for the Kyrgyz language. AIRUN’s technology includes a large language model, speech recognition, text-to-speech tools, AI translation, and digital avatars designed for use in government, education, media, business, and public services. Chingiz Arziev spoke to TCA about the challenge of building AI for a low-resource language, why digital sovereignty matters for Kyrgyzstan, and how the company hopes to take its experience to other countries facing similar language and technology challenges. TCA: To begin with, can you tell us a little about yourself: where you grew up, what you studied, and how you first became interested in technology? Chingiz Arziev: I was born and raised in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. My interest in technology started very early. Around the age of nine, I discovered design software: Photoshop, Illustrator, and CorelDRAW. I was not only learning how to use them, but also comparing their interfaces and trying to understand what made one product more intuitive than another. At around 14, I became interested in motion design, 3D graphics, and digital sculpting. I studied Adobe After Effects, Blender, and ZBrush. Whatever software I was learning, I was always interested in the same thing: user experience. Already by the age of 16, I had started learning HTML and CSS to begin building websites and landing pages. Looking back, the common thread has always been understanding how technology works and how it can solve real problems for people. TCA: Was there a particular moment when you realized that artificial intelligence could become a serious field for you personally? Chingiz Arziev: I have always been drawn to advanced engineering and emerging technologies. In 2015, I became deeply involved in the blockchain space. The architectures, protocols, and decentralized systems being developed at the time felt completely new and inspiring. But even that did not compare to what happened during the AI boom of 2022. I still remember the day I sent my first prompt to ChatGPT. For me, that was the moment everything changed. I immediately saw the direction technology would take over the next 20 years. After that, I spoke about artificial intelligence everywhere. I talked about how AI would transform industries, reshape professions, automate routine work, and fundamentally change the labor market. Many friends and colleagues thought I was exaggerating. But I had spent years following companies such as Boston Dynamics, Tesla, Unitree, and DJI. Because of that, I saw a broader picture. Artificial intelligence would not develop in isolation. It would advance alongside robotics, autonomous systems, and automation. After sending that first prompt to ChatGPT, I knew I wanted to dedicate my career to artificial intelligence. TCA: How did the idea for AIRUN first come about, and what problem were you trying to solve? Chingiz Arziev: For countries with low-resource languages, the need for sovereign AI has existed for a long time. The challenge was never the idea itself. The challenge was execution, expertise, infrastructure, and...

Innovation

INMerge Tashkent Showcases Rise of Uzbekistan as Regional Innovation Hub

On April 30, investors, founders and corporate leaders gathered in Uzbekistan’s capital, Tashkent, for the latest incarnation of the INMerge Innovation Summit. The traveling series followed an earlier session in Istanbul and will lead into the main summit scheduled for October 8-9 in Baku. In Tashkent, discussions centered on a question that continues to define Uzbekistan’s digital trajectory: how to turn rapid growth into a sustainable, interconnected ecosystem capable of competing beyond national borders. Two core discussions framed the agenda. The first focused on how companies are building digital ecosystems around everyday user needs. The second addressed a more structural issue: whether capital alone is enough to build what some participants called a “Digital Silk Road,” or whether deeper foundations are required. A Rising Regional Star The series of summits has been organized by PASHA Holding, an Azerbaijani conglomerate owned by the ruling Aliyev and Pashayev families. For Tughra Musayeva, Head of Innovations at PASHA Financial Holding and Managing Partner at INMerge Ventures, Uzbekistan stands out as a "rising star of the region". “It’s rich in human talent and capital, and increased political support for innovation and tech infrastructure is already showing results," she told The Times of Central Asia on the sidelines of the event. "In the coming years, we’re going to see many interesting startups and projects emerging from Uzbekistan.” Musayeva challenged a common assumption about emerging tech markets – that they remain dependent on foreign expertise. In her view, Tashkent already has most of the elements needed to sustain growth internally. “What we see right now is a very self-sufficient platform. There is infrastructure and the right actors are in place. The next step is about scaling, especially across borders,” she said, pointing to her ambition to increase cross-border collaboration between Central Asia and the Caucasus. A similar emphasis on connectivity came from her colleague Ulviyya Mehraliyeva, innovation events manager at PASHA Financial Holding and a member of the INMerge team. For her, the Tashkent gathering was part of a broader effort to link ecosystems that often develop in isolation. “What differentiates us is our focus on connecting ideas, people, ecosystems, and talent with opportunities," she told TCA. “We believe Tashkent has huge potential. There has been significant investment and development in the startup ecosystem.” To her, the city is already emerging as a regional hub, but she cautioned that Uzbekistan still has a lot to learn from outside. “It’s both building your own ecosystem while also learning from others. This is a stage of development. Every region goes through it,” she said. “We believe that collaboration between countries like Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan will only strengthen that.” [caption id="attachment_48170" align="aligncenter" width="2560"] Image: TCA[/caption] The View from the Ground Practitioners working within Uzbekistan’s tech sector were more circumspect. Dalerkhon Nodirov, CEO of IT Park Ventures, offered a more measured view of the country’s technological independence, particularly in the field of artificial intelligence. “We don’t yet have our own AI models,” he said. “At this stage, we still depend...

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...