Venture capital - The Times Of Central Asia

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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...

Cybersecurity

Uzbekistan’s Cerberus Wins Road to TechCrunch Regional Final

Uzbek startup Cerberus has won the regional final of Road to TechCrunch Startup Battlefield 2026, earning a ticket to San Francisco. For Uzbekistan’s young technology industry, the result is another sign of its push beyond the domestic market. For Cerberus, the challenge is now to convince international investors and clients that an AI tool developed in Tashkent to find vulnerabilities can compete in the global cybersecurity market. Cerberus took first place in the regional final on August 12. WeGlobal AI finished second, followed by LOOQ. Twenty-two startups reached the final after being selected from 726 applications from 39 countries. Uzbekistan was represented by six projects. The three winners will represent Central Eurasia at Startup Battlefield 200 in San Francisco. TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 will run from October 13 to 15. Twenty of the 200 companies will be selected to pitch on the main stage, with five advancing to the final round to compete for the $100,000 equity-free grand prize and the Disrupt Cup. The three regional winners will share a $100,000 investment pool, with Cerberus receiving $50,000. Competition rules state that each investment will be made on standard market terms in exchange for equity. Astana Hub Ventures and IT Park Ventures are providing the funding in partnership with Silkroad Innovation Hub. According to the organizers, the winners will also receive a combined $100,000 in OpenAI API credits. Cerberus founder and CEO Aziz Akhmedkhodjaev told The Times of Central Asia that two factors were behind the company’s success: the product and the team’s ability to explain the problem it solves. “I would say there are two main things here. The first, of course, is the product. Everyone understood that we had created something the market really needs,” he said. “I think that was the key to winning. I didn’t spend a single second of the pitch on anything other than clearly explaining the problem, how the solution works, and its potential.” Cerberus describes its product as an AI-powered cybersecurity system capable of finding vulnerabilities in corporate applications and IT infrastructure. Demand for such tools is growing alongside the spread of generative AI: companies and individual developers can write software faster, but the volume of code that needs to be checked for errors and potential attack vectors is also increasing. “Literally everyone is writing code with artificial intelligence now. Vulnerabilities, coding errors, and other weaknesses are appearing much faster,” Akhmedkhodjaev said. The company says Cerberus allows users to give its AI agent access to an application or IT infrastructure and task it with finding vulnerabilities. The agent can also test authentication and perform other security checks. According to Akhmedkhodjaev, however, using a general-purpose AI model for such work can itself create risks. “If you give Claude or another AI access to a vulnerability in a real bank, even the smallest mistake can lead to serious financial losses,” he said. The company says Cerberus is designed to restrict what its AI agent can do after identifying a weakness. “In our project, there is a...

Venture capital

How a New Generation of Startups From Kazakhstan Attracted International Investors

A software engineering team writes code in Almaty for a parent company incorporated in Delaware. Most of its revenue comes from customers in the United States and Singapore, with the United Kingdom another important market. Until recently, this business model was unusual in Kazakhstan. It is now becoming more common as entrepreneurs launch international companies from the outset rather than focus solely on the domestic market. Rather than adapt foreign products for Kazakhstan’s population of about 20 million, these founders are developing technology for customers abroad. Their success is drawing interest from international venture capital firms and raising Kazakhstan’s profile as a source of high-growth technology companies. Growth Measured in Numbers The latest Startups and Venture Capital in Central Asia 2026 report by RISE Research shows how quickly Kazakhstan’s venture sector is growing. Venture investment reached $209 million in 2025, nearly three times the $71 million raised a year earlier. The figure also exceeded the combined total elsewhere in Central Asia. The aggregate valuation of funded startups in Kazakhstan rose to $2.16 billion. RISE Research also found that U.S.-oriented startups with roots in Kazakhstan raised more than $214 million in 2025. This helps explain the rise in international interest. Venture funds are backing companies built for global markets rather than businesses dependent on a relatively small domestic customer base. Among the best-known examples is Higgsfield AI, which develops software for creating and editing AI-generated video. The company raised $50 million in Series A financing in September 2025. An $80 million extension in January 2026 brought the round to more than $130 million and valued the company at over $1.3 billion, confirming its status as Kazakhstan’s first unicorn. Cerebra AI develops software that analyzes CT scans to help clinicians detect ischemic and hemorrhagic strokes. The platform uses the ASPECTS scale and can return an analysis within minutes. Codiplay supplies educational software and Internet of Things kits used to teach programming and hands-on electronics in 13 countries, including South Korea and the UK. The company raised $9 million in Series A financing in January 2025. Parqour develops parking management software with automated license plate recognition. Its systems operate in 22 countries and cover more than 300 parking areas. These companies work in different fields, but their businesses are built mainly around software and intellectual property, even where hardware is part of the product. That makes expansion abroad less capital-intensive and helps explain their appeal to foreign investors. Why Investors Are Paying Attention Now Kazakhstan’s emergence as Central Asia’s leading venture capital market did not happen overnight. The record investment figures of 2025 followed several years of work in the startup sector, including Astana Hub’s accelerator programs and tax incentives. More founders also began developing products for international markets. One clear sign was international recognition. Three startups with founders from Kazakhstan were accepted into Y Combinator in 2025, matching the total accepted in all previous years combined, according to RISE Research. For international investors, acceptance into the Silicon Valley accelerator provides external validation as...

Global Tech Weekend

Global Tech Weekend Brings International Investors and Startups to Uzbekistan

More than 2,500 startup founders, investors, developers, venture capital representatives, and technology experts gathered in Uzbekistan’s capital from May 15-17 for the inaugural Global Tech Weekend × TECH FEST, an event organizers say reflects the region’s growing role in the international innovation economy. Held in partnership with IT Park Uzbekistan, the three-day festival featured more than 40 events and over 120 speakers from Central Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and the United States. Discussions covered artificial intelligence, venture capital, gaming, digital transformation, startup scaling, and cross-border investment. The event marks Global Tech Weekend’s first edition in Uzbekistan. Founded in Los Angeles in 2024, the event debuted in Tbilisi in 2025 before expanding in 2026 to Tashkent, Tbilisi, and Baku as flagship host cities. “You have everything you need to achieve your goals. IT Park and the government provide strong support. I wish every country had this level of support,” said Jaba Kikvidze, co-founder of Global Tech Weekend, during the festival. “My advice to founders in Uzbekistan is to work hard, look beyond the local market, explore new opportunities, and make use of the ecosystem being built around you,” he added. [caption id="attachment_49077" align="aligncenter" width="300"] @IT Park Uzbekistan[/caption] One of the recurring themes of the event was how Central Asian startups can move beyond domestic markets and attract international investment. During a panel titled “Roots: Local Playbooks on Investing and Building within Central Asia,” regional investors discussed how funding strategies and startup expectations are evolving across emerging economies. Representatives from global accelerators and investment networks also highlighted growing international interest in founders from less traditional technology hubs. Speaking to The Times of Central Asia, Farrukh Erkinov, head of the Startup Ecosystem Development Department at IT Park Uzbekistan, said one of the festival’s main objectives was to create direct links between local entrepreneurs and global investors. “One of the most important factors in today’s startup ecosystem is connection to the global community,” Erkinov said. “Through Global Tech Weekend, we aimed to create a direct platform for startups in Uzbekistan to interact with international investors, accelerators, and technology partners.” [caption id="attachment_49078" align="aligncenter" width="300"] @IT Park Uzbekistan[/caption] Artificial intelligence was another major focus of the festival. Speakers including Ethan Pierse, a partner at Borderless Ventures whose work focuses on the AI economy, argued that traditional investment models are becoming less effective as AI reshapes industries and shortens startup development cycles. The event also included startup pitch competitions featuring projects from Uzbekistan and neighboring countries, mentorship sessions with international experts, and esports tournaments centered on PUBG MOBILE and Mobile Legends. Organizers said the festival is intended to connect Central Asia more closely with the Caucasus and other neighboring regions. “We believe we can unite Central Asia and the Caucasus,” Global Tech Weekend co-founder Guri Koiava told The Times of Central Asia. “This means friendship, bridges between countries, joint investments, and new business opportunities. Here I see a strong drive from young people. They believe in what they are building."

Venture capital

Central Asian Startups See Investment Surge

The fifth Central Eurasian Venture Forum (CEVF 2026) opened in Uzbekistan for the first time, drawing around 800 investors, startups, and technology companies from Central Asia, Europe, the U.S., Southeast Asia, and the Middle East and North Africa. Minister of Digital Technologies Sherzod Shermatov attended the opening ceremony. The event was organized by MOST Holding and IT Park Uzbekistan with government support. Partners included Astana Hub, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the International Finance Corporation, Visa, and others. During the forum, the report Startups and Venture Capital in Central Asia 2026, prepared by RISE Research, was presented. According to the study, total venture capital investment in the region reached $320 million in 2025. The two largest deals, $130 million for Higgsfield and $65.5 million for Uzum, accounted for 61% of the total. Excluding these deals, the market reached $124.5 million, marking a 31% increase compared to 2024 and indicating steady organic growth. At the forum, the analytical agency RISE Research presented a study of the Central Asian venture capital market for 2025. According to the study, the volume of venture capital investments in Kazakhstan nearly tripled, reaching $209 million, with artificial intelligence being the main driver, accounting for approximately half of the total investment. In Uzbekistan, funding reached $33.8 million, an increase of more than eleven times compared to 2022. Including major deals, the Uzbek market is estimated at $99.3 million, with 85% of investment coming from domestic investors. The forum also hosted the CEVF Awards ceremony, recognizing key players in the regional venture ecosystem. In addition, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development announced 13 finalists for its Star Venture program for Central Asia, aimed at supporting high-tech startups. During the forum, cooperation agreements were signed with international partners, including companies from South Korea and the Middle East, to support the development of the startup ecosystem and attract investment. The second cohort of the Investment Readiness Accelerator (IRA) Tashkent program, focused on early-stage startups, was also launched.