Astana Hub to finance best IT startups

The best IT startups in Kazakhstan and the CIS will receive up to 20 million tenge (US$47,021). Astana Hub promises to finance interesting projects. It launched the Seed Money program, in which both beginners in this area and stronger IT specialists can participate. The main criterion is to have a working startup with its own products. It is necessary to go through six stages of selection for this, from submitting an application to concluding an agreement. There are already several applicants. According to the technopark’s CEO Magzhan Madiyev, applications are already being actively sent. However, only 35 of the most creative projects will be selected. In addition to money for the development of their business, the winners will get a free workspace, training and mentoring, access to investors and a community of 500 IT companies, tax and visa preferences, as well as PR support.

“In order to become a candidate for funding, we have different requirements. The first stage is having an MVP. This is the minimum viable product, that is, the presence of a prototype that already performs some function and has its first users. It is desirable that there were already some first sales. The second stage called Product/Market Fit is already regular sales. We plan to finance startups in three stages – up to five million tenge (US$11,755), ten million (US$23,510) and 20 million tenge (US$47,021),” Madiyev said.

 

Translation by Saniya Sakenova

Editing by Galiya Khassenkhanova