• Established in 2022 in Tbilisi by Aleksandre Tavkhelidze, Giorgi Javakhidze, and David Berdznishvili, Wempler connects customers with local businesses and individual experts to tackle errands, cleaning, handyman jobs, deliveries, and other everyday tasks. To receive immediate or scheduled assistance from specialized partner companies or local experts, the customer must place a request on Wempler via text message, voice message, or call.

• Wempler claims its solution can match customers with the 3 most suitable offers from local service providers (companies & individuals) within 5 minutes. In addition, since launching, the startup completed more than 22,000 tasks and served over 10,000 customers.

It’s always a pleasure to work with founders who are driven, bring great energy, and work relentlessly. They aren’t afraid to try many things and iterate rapidly to create the best possible product. Aleksandre, David, and Giorgi fit this founder profile perfectly. This is why we believe in them and their vision, as they build the dominant player in this category

Roman Novacek, Partner of Presto Ventures.

• Presto Ventures, Prague-based VC firm, led the current round. The deal is 4th Georgian investment for Presto Ventures. Recently, the firm announced its first full exit: Slovak company Luigi’s Box acquired Czech Persoo.

• The investment will be used for product development and expansion across the Georgian market and the CIS region. 

• Founded in 2020 by Eralp Hatipoglu and Beka Kemertelidze, CityPay.io is the first-in-region cryptocurrency payment system that helps businesses receive payments in cryptocurrency and convert them into fiat. In doing so, CityPay.io creates a complete ecosystem of four different channels for businesses and individuals to pay in and receive cryptocurrency.
• Since the launch of its product at the start of 2021, CityPay.io has succeeded in acquiring more than 700 partner businesses including Radisson Hotels, Wendy’s Georgia, and Fresco supermarket chain. So far, the company operates in Georgia and has expanded across the CIS region and beyond.

“Over the last two years, CityPay.io has been developing the crypto market as a whole, in Georgia and beyond. In this time, we have significantly shaped the culture of crypto purchases for everyday products and services. We are honored to be supported by Presto Ventures and Tether as we continue to scale up, with our core mission in mind – to make everyone part of the crypto world,”

Eralp Hatipoglu, Co-Founder & CEO, CityPay.io, comments.

• Tether is one of the backers of the company. It is an asset-backed cryptocurrency stablecoin, which entered the CIS market by investing in CityPay.io. Presto Ventures, a Prague-based investment company empowering talented startup founders from the wider CEE region, is the other lead investor.

“We trust this funding helps CityPay.io further strengthen their leading position in the region as they continue to expand the overall market adoption of cryptocurrencies and associated services to as many people as possible,”

Roman Nováček, Partner, Presto Ventures, comments.

• The round also saw participation from unnamed international and Georgian angel investors. The amount of the funding also included a $500,000 investment in cryptocurrency.
• The funds will be used to expand into the CIS region and other markets, and the development of a B2C platform.

• Surge Summit is a catalyst for driving positive change in the startup landscape of the Eastern Europe, Caucasus, and Central Asia region. The goal of the event is to provide a dynamic platform for startups and investors to come together, share ideas, and explore new opportunities.
• This year, the event partnered with the USF, which underscores the dedication of building a vibrant, supportive, and collaborative community. Through this partnership, Surge aims to accelerate the growth of the EECCA region.
• The event offers a wide variety of activities, including matchmaking sessions, expert panels, and networking opportunities, providing attendees with valuable insights and growth opportunities.
• A highlight of Surge Summit is the pitch competition, where startups get the chance to pitch their solutions in front of investors. The winning startup can take home €20,000 equity free.

Any startups, investors, entrepreneurs, and ecosystem stakeholders from across the EECCA region and beyond are welcome to participate in Surge Summit, here.

• Founded in 2012 by Frank Freund, Michael Stephan, and Tamaz Giorgadze, Raisin is a savings and investment marketplace that connects retail customers with banks looking to expand deposit reach. The company helps savers to get the best interest rates.

• Raisin’s unique approach to simplifying banking has helped it to partner with over 100 partner banks in more than 25 countries. Recently, the company surpassed one million users and generated interest benefits of about €850 million since its inception.
• The fresh €60 million capital was provided by Goldman Sachs, an American multinational investment bank and financial services company, and M&G Investments, a global investment manager headquartered in London.
• Raisin will use the funds to accelerate its expansion into global markets, like in the US, where it already manages assets of more than $1 billion. 

• The app will work in Batumi and Tbilisi. Currently, 20 Hyundai Elantra cars are available there, if necessary, the number will be increased.
• The rental rate is GEL 0.18 per minute, GEL 16 per hour or GEL 160 per day. This amount already includes the cost of fuel.
• To rent a car, you need to register in the Getmancar application (available for iOS and Android) and select a car on the map.

According to Getmancar’s CEO Taras Hetmanskyi, the Ukrainian team provides technical support for the service in Georgia. 

“For us, this is additional development and a step forward. It is important to carry the flag of Ukraine on the economic front and at the same time provide foreign proceeds to the country. In addition, for every five newly created local workplaces, we create an additional workplace for Ukrainians — mid-level managers and above who supervise processes. We continue to work in Ukraine and plan to further develop the service and enter new foreign markets,”

says Taras Hetmanskyi.

Getmancar is a Ukrainian carsharing service that has been operating since 2017. It offers car rentals of various classes by the minute, as well as hourly and daily. The number of its users is over 180,000.

On September 19, Getmancar launched in Lviv. Due to blackouts, the Ukrainian company is experiencing difficult times. Without the Internet, it is difficult to communicate with users, cars are getting blocked with drivers’ belongings inside, and cars on the map “are flying” during air alarms.

• Founded in 2021 by Givi Beridze, KIKLIKO is one of the largest libraries of GIFs with sounds. The startup has its own website and browser extension, as well as a mobile app, where a user can create, search, or share their favorite moments from movies or videos to any social network.

“One year ago we offered the first MVP to the market in the form of a website and applications. And in January we launched the first integration with iMe Messenger, where people use emojis or GIFs, as well as video clips. In the next year, much larger integrations are ahead with social networks with hundreds of millions of users. Along the way, the KIKLIKO team had to refuse investment many times, for various reasons. But we are glad that we met Presto Ventures, in particular Roman Novacek and Vojta Rocek, and partnered with them,”

Givi Beridze, creator of KIKLIKO, comments.

• Presto Ventures is the lead investor during the pre-seed round. It is a venture capital fund empowering talented CEE startup founders. The fund was founded by Přemysl Rubeš in 2016 and is headquartered in Prague. Apart from KIKLIKO, in 2022 it invested in Okredo, Choice, and Finmap.
• The fresh funding will help the startup to facilitate its growth. With the weekly growth of 5-7%, the startup plans to reach a million daily users in the 2nd quarter of 2023.

The startups can apply now and up until September 18 here.

Who can apply?

Georgian early-stage technology startups are eligible to participate, if they meet the following conditions:

• Have scalable business model;
• Have a prototype or at least the potential to have a tested prototype by the end of the program;
• Its team consists of at least 2 founders, who are dedicated to building their startup full-time.

What to expect?

The pre-accelerator program will last 12 weeks, starting on October 6. It will be held in a hybrid format (online and offline meetings), and consist of individual mentoring, different networking formats, as well as a work in co-working space of Impact Hub.

After the completing the pre-accelerator the startups will have: a business plan, a business model, a financial plan, as well as a communication strategy, a product prototype or a technical plan for its implementation.

The program will end on December 13 with the Demo day, where participating startups will present themselves to investors, and have the opportunity to obtain investment for the development and expansion.

About startup Pre-Accelerator

The startup Pre-Accelerator was founded in 2021 by Impact Hub Tbilisi’s team. It is a 3-months equity-free program that supports early-stage tech startup founders from prototype to investor-readiness. The program is perfectly designed for employees, students and anyone else who wants to start a business.

• Glovo has been operating in Georgia for more than three years. Currently, the service is available in ten cities, including Tbilisi, Batumi, Kutaisi, and Rustavi. The company is now planning to expand its presence into smaller Georgian towns. It is what Rodrigo Alier, Executive Director of Partners and Brands at Glovo, called “hyperlocal strategy.”
• Over 1,500 Georgian restaurants are now available online, and the company’s strategy is also focused on attracting and welcoming more brands and partners to the market. This is one of the main challenges Glovo faces in Georgia because many local merchants have never experienced e-commerce nor made any sales online. So the top task is to raise awareness about the company’s brand among customers and potential partners.
• To implement all those steps, Glovo has recently announced a new General Manager for Georgia. This role was taken by Artem Kolosiuk, who had been working at Glovo in Ukraine, where he was responsible for all non-Kyiv business. Before that, he held executive positions in companies such as Jacobs and Procter & Gamble.
• Talking about Glovo’s services, Georgia was one of the first markets where the company launched a subscription program called Glovo Prime, as well as Glovo Express. According to Rodrigo Alier, Georgia has one of the highest penetration of orders per capita of all the countries where Glovo is present. 
• The Spanish company also cares a lot about the Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives development in Georgia, Dmitry Rasnovsky told Forbes. The biggest CSR project there is the Glovo Pledge, a project for couriers, ensuring a certain level of earnings and development. Other initiatives relevant to Georgia include the Women in Tech and compensation for CO2 emissions.
• To sum up, the Georgian e-commerce market is underdeveloped but, at the same time, is very open to innovations. There are no big players like Amazon in Europe or Rozetka in Ukraine. So Glovo has high chances and opportunities to fill the niche by becoming a super delivery application, Dmitry Rasnovsky said.

In the Startup of the Day feature, the CEO at Crosscreaters Ani Manjavidze shares details about the startup’s idea, its product, team, and early results.

The Startup of the Day feature on AIN.Capital is dedicated to tech projects from all sectors that originated from the CEE countries. If you would like to introduce your project, please fill in the questionnaire.

Tell us about your startup. How does it work?

Crosscreators develops an Augmented Reality platform to simplify AR content creation for brands. We unite the segmented AR creation process in a one-stop-shop solution for creators seeking to monetize their skills and for brands that can cost-effectively and simply get AR content either by ordering a project or buying a ready-made template, which is yet customizable.

AR content creation process gets 60% cheaper and 3x faster. We cover the whole AR landscape. Here you can get social media effects, web-based (for your websites) and application content as well.

So we make sure that at every stage of the marketing funnel, marketers and their brands get the desired and effective content that will ultimately boost their ROI.

How did you come up with the startup’s idea? What was the reason/motivation behind it?

Three years ago, I myself, being from the marketing space, decided to run a unique marketing campaign for one of the companies where I was CMO. From that point on, the struggle began. Long story short, I lost four months only for doing the simplest social media filter. Other companies also struggled. So I decided to make an agency, but it still was not a solution as:

• 8 out of 10 brands lack the resources to adopt AR;
• AR content is expensive and time-consuming (min $10,000-100,000)
• SMBs struggle to find the right creators.

The main reason Crosscreators exists is the mission of AR democratization — every marketer should have successful campaigns and access high-converting medium AR technology.

How long did it take you to reach MVP? What difficulties did you encounter?

So far, we have had two versions of the product. We started as a prototype and launched the MVP two months ago. But it is more than MVP, so we call it Alpha MVP. It took us two months to redesign our previous platform, and after that time, we have an almost perfect tool for AR creators and their clients.

When exactly did you launch your product? 

We kicked it off five months ago. Since then, we have tripled our traction, and now we have around 2,000 international creators who cover the whole AR landscape, as well as 500 paying customers.

Tell us about the startup’s business model. How do you monetize your product?

We make money through the commission business model.

What are your target markets and consumers? 

Our clients are companies, mainly B2C focused, that sell their products or services digitally. To talk more about users, they mostly come from marketing teams: either CMOs themselves or marketing or social media managers. We focus mainly on the European market, but we have clients from the USA as well.

What about your team? How many people are working for the startup? If you’re looking for new employees, indicate whom exactly.

We are a team of 15 now (half Georgian and half Ukrainian).

Have you already raised any investments? Provide us with more details on each funding round: the amount, investors, the purpose of the investment.

We have raised $300,000 altogether with governmental grants, VC and accelerator.

What’s next? Tell us about your future plans.

We are refining our product and want to scale internationally. Since we already have customers, we want to double in size in the near future.

AIN.Capital talked to Beka Dalakishvili, co-founder and CEO of Kernel, about the startup’s idea, product features, and ambitious plans that include further digital financial tools development and scaling into Pakistan and Nigerian markets.

What is the idea behind Kernel? How did you come up with it? 

Kernel is a simple invoicing and financial tools platform that helps small business owners digitize day-to-day operations, automate business processes, and exchange information with accountants.

Interestingly, the idea of ​​Kernel arose from my own needs about two years ago. I am a financier. I have consulted for hundreds of small businesses and worked with dozens of accounting teams. At the time of founding the startup, I was in charge of the financial department in one of the holding companies and faced the problem of communication and information exchange between the holding companies and accountants. Small businesses face so many challenges that the idea we created to solve our own problem gradually turned into a startup idea.

As it turned out, Georgia is not the only developing country with similar issues. We started researching and found that the problem is much more pronounced in large, developing countries: the Philippines and India, where the government is encouraging businesses to become digital in light of revised tax regulations. However, it is also interesting to note that no simple invoicing platform was found for these markets.

Along the way, we obtained several significant grants. We added a lot of effort, work, and enthusiasm, which led us to a flexible, stable platform today and even to enter international markets.

What kind of pain points does the startup cover?

For non-financial managers / small entrepreneurs, financial management is challenging; assessing the business’s financial condition at any time and controlling customer debt is a prerequisite for making the right decisions. Still, unfortunately, small businesses do not have the luxury of having separate finance departments. In addition, gathering reliable and complete information or documentation for accountants is always a headache, but it is necessary for tax returns and preparing reports. Consequently, inadequate accounting information and the mechanisms for exchanging this information pose a problem for both businesses and accountants. It was to solve these problems that Kernel was created.

Switching to digital platforms is a long and painful process for those who manage their finances using traditional methods. We have faced these challenges in India and the Philippines as well. At the moment, we are actively trying to facilitate the digitization process and appropriately benefit consumers, so they can better evolve.

In addition, the frequent need for dialogue with locals has posed significant difficulties. Getting Indian and Filipino customers interested in cooperating with us was challenging. This was also mainly due to the cultural gap, which made us realize that we need to better get to know the locals’ culture and values to communicate with them more easily. We are already working on this challenge with an international team in India and the Philippines. Local representatives help us in collaborating with potential customers.

Tell us please a bit more about your product. How does it work? 

Kernel’s main advantage is GST-compliant invoicing, which simplifies the lives of our customers. In addition, with the help of Kernel Tools, you can:

• Choose from professional templates — Invoice with style;
• Set up automated reminders for overdue invoices;
• Create recurring invoices;
• Create invoices in multiple currencies;
• Manage all your customers in one place-save their information and keep a customer base;
• Control the payment statuses of all your invoices in one space;
• Use insightful reports.

Who are your target customers? How many customers Kernel has already acquired?

Our target customers are small business owners who need a simple invoicing platform to support their accounting processes. Our target market currently includes Georgia, India, and the Philippines, and the number of users is already over 45,000.

What is Kernel’s business model? How do you monetize the service? 

This time, we are guided by the SaaS business model, which means that the company generates income by selling digital products. Packages are made up of three types of subscriptions.

• We also have Freemium, which means the user can use the trial version of the premium package for one month to judge how much the product is worth buying.
• It is essential to mention the so-called Custom solution, which is intended for Enterprise level users.
• We also offer customized solutions to companies with different/additional needs to use our platform better.

For example, our customers in the Philippines will soon be able to receive payments from their clients directly through our platform to their accounts and e-wallets. The transfer fees will be an additional source of income for us. In addition, we are working on alternative sources of income by building integrations, partnerships, and various banking services on our platform.

Kernel plans to spend the $30,000 investment it raised at the Shark Tank show to develop its product in the Philippines and India. Why did you choose these markets? 

The Kernel team plans to use the investment to cover operating costs and product development in the Indian market, which will be reflected in the refinement of the mobile application.

The Indian market holds great promise for us, as we target a wide range of customers there. The digitalization process has started in India, and we want to help in this process with our simple invoicing system.

What else will you spend the proceeds on? What are your future plans?

It is a priority for us to get a firm foothold in whichever market we enter and only then think about expansion. Therefore, in 2022, we will devote ourselves to strengthening our positions in India and the Philippines, taking advantage of the market, and refining our products.

Our goal is to become the simplest, customized, and most effective financial management platform for small businesses and freelance accountants in the Georgian and international markets. Based on this big goal, we are now working on several important issues, and our future plans are divided into three main directions:

1. Product development, which in turn is divided into two subcategories:

Integrations with partners. Accounting programs, payment systems, banks, tax systems, etc., which will allow our users to automate business processes as much as possible.

Adding additional functionality. Soon, our customers will be able to use the Kernel mobile application, which will allow them to issue invoices anytime, anywhere, and perform any invoicing-related operations even more easily through their mobile phones. We have already launched the mobile application for the Philippine market, which will soon be offered to the Georgian and Indian markets as well. In addition, we plan to add a cost module, and we are also going to develop the payroll system in India and the Philippines, which we already have in Georgia.

Ultimately, we are creating a kind of operating system for small businesses that will allow them to fully digitize their business processes and automatically exchange this information between different business functions and programs.

2. On the other hand, business development:

We are primarily focused on effectively tapping into the huge Indian market, where customers face many financial, accounting, and tax challenges. At this point, we don’t know where to start solving these problems, which will be the fastest path to success and create the most value for customers. We have standardized the process in Georgia and the Philippines. We know the market well and users’ needs, and we will soon offer all the necessary functionality. When we reach this level of standardization in India, then we will think about other countries: Pakistan and Nigeria.

3. Finally, our launchpad product is an electronic invoicing system that allows us to get feedback from our customers and understand their wants and needs.

The Kernel team believes that exchanging information and receiving user feedback is the best way to develop. Therefore, we decided to refine and expand information platforms and provide non-financial audiences with helpful information in an understandable language — financial advice that will help them or their business develop.

Accordingly, our goal is to add innovations to Kernel’s digital financial tools based on customer demand and needs and tap into new markets. Also, our next step is to develop the expense module and make the Kernel a platform where small and medium businesses can do routine business operations in the shortest possible time.

We have already started integrating financial services into our platform and will offer complete banking services to Kernel users by the end of this year.

• Founded in 2019 by Beka Dalakishvili, Misho Zghuladze, and Giorgi Tukhashvili, Kernel develops a platform with financial tools for small businesses and freelancers. The solution helps to deal with managing accounting documents and processes, as well as calculating taxes and forecasting.
• Kernel’s main product is a digital invoicing platform that allows users to easily create and send invoices. The company operates in three countries — Georgia, the Philippines, and India. The startup already has more than 30,000 registered customers.
• The investment was made at Shark Tank. It is a business TV show where entrepreneurs make business presentations to a panel of several investors or “sharks,” who then decide whether to invest in their company.
• The startup will use the fresh funding to cover operating costs and product development. Kernel also plans to develop its mobile app in the Philippines and India.

• Founded in 2020 by Kakhaber Kochiashvili, Makho Kituashvili, and Vakho Romanovi, OMOFOX is a full-service digital freight forwarding platform. It simplifies the large cargo transportation by enabling customers to automate logistics through the acquisition, planning, and monitoring of shipments in real-time.
• The lead investor, Presto Ventures, is a Prague-based venture capital fund focusing on talented CEE startup founders. In January 2022, the fund invested in the Ukrainian startup Finmap. It also backed the Lithuanian open data Okredo in 2021.
• OMOFOX has 30 team members and hopes to add new team members to 20 different jobs throughout the year. The company already has more than 300 regular business customers, and that number is steadily increasing.
• The funds funding will help with growth in Western Asia and Eastern Europe, as well as further product development.

• Founded in 2019 by David Lomiashvili, Zura Kotaria, who serves as a COO, and CTO Rezo Imnadze, Identomat provides automated identity verification & anti-money laundering (AML) compliance as a service. The startup is headquartered in the USA — in Champaign, Illinois.
• Over 60 enterprises, startups, and government organizations in Ukraine, Georgia, Estonia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Belarus, India, Japan, Italy, and the US are among the startup’s customers, David Lomiashvili says.
• KYC, identity verification, and fraud prevention solutions of Identomat are applicable in such industries as banking and finance, digital payments and remittances, microcredit and lending, blockchain and crypto, insurance, healthcare, telecom, online gambling, and various public services.
• The fresh funding will allow Identomat to put in motion a longer-term strategy and grow market share in its existing markets in Europe, Central Asia, and the United States, and expand into the new ones — Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa.

“Key to all of this is obviously nurturing and growing our brilliant team so that they can keep on doing their magic and pushing Identomat to new heights. So, acquiring new talent is one of our main priorities, along with expanding our product and developing new strategic partnerships,”,

CEO shares the startup’s plans.

1. Payze

Tbilisi-based fintech PAYZE develops an online payment system for e-commerce to help businesses to accept payments from around the world through a single integration. It has already made 250,000 online payments in nine months.

Founded: in 2019 by Giorgi Tsurtsumia and Kakha Gelashvili, starting operating in January 2021.

Funding:

• $210,000 (650,000 lari) grant from Georgian Innovation and Technology Agency (GITA) in October 2021. 
• $125,000 pre-seed investment from Y Combinator in August 2021.

2. UpWay

Headquartered in Tbilisi, UPWAY is the first marketplace in Georgia that provides courses and programs from different providers in six major categories: technology, professional development, various classes for kids, life and self-improvement skills, hobby. The platform is operating in the Georgian market only.

Founded: in August 2021 by Mari Abuladze, Mariam Tsanava and Marisha Gogolauri.

3. EduPay

The startup develops a digital platform that helps educational organizations improve the tuition payment process. EduPay’s billing software fully automates the tuition tracking and management process — from signing agreements with customers in an online system to receiving information on bank details of companies for making payments.

Founded: in 2020 by Alexander Chogovadze, George Khachidze, Kristofer Gvenetadze.

Funding: $94,000 pre-seed round closed in July 2021.

3. Kvilifika

Kvalifika is an AI-based technology startup based that offers businesses self-service of customer identification and verification. Its product portfolio includes liveness and age check, documents verification, and e-signatures. Kvalifika’s solution is now used by more than 20 organizations which makes it the largest service provider in the region.

Founded: in 2019 by Gabriel Meliva and Beka Tomashvili.

Funding: $210,000 (650,000 lari) grant from GITA in November 2021.

4. Pevaton

Tbilisi-based Pevaton develops a B2B platform that connects Eastern European brands, designers, and European fashion boutiques. It helps Georgian and Eastern European small brands and designers to enter the EU market.

Founded: in February 2021 by Levan Asanidze.

Funding: over $32,000 (100,000 lari) grant from GITA in February 2021.

• CityPay.io is a platform that provides a cryptocurrency payment gateway that makes it possible for any type of business to receive crypto payments. The service is already used by more than 300 businesses. The startup was founded in 2020 by Georgian developers Beka Kemertelidze and Eralf Hatipoglu.
• According to Crunchbase, CityPay.io has already gone through two rounds of funding totaling $130,000. The latest $30,000 round was raised in September 2020 from Georgia’s Innovation and Technology Agency.
• CityPay.io is a convenient service for receiving payments both online and in physical merchants. A scheme of its use is simple — each business needs to register and create its wallet where a payment order with a special QR code will be generated automatically or manually. Users can scan such QR codes from any crypto wallet application.
• The startup is planning to explore the international market, specifically the CIS countries. The fresh funds will be partly spent on product development, while a large part will be spent on marketing and sales to quickly increase the number of partners, the founders tell Caucasus Business Week.

• Founded in 2020 by Nasser Oudjidane and Neil Jay Shah, Intrro is an international startup with a B2B model that provides a platform for connecting qualified job-seekers to companies through a referral system.
• The system works like a “Job Tinder.” Each employee gets rewards by recommending an appropriate candidate, confirming their qualification, and aligning with the company values. This helps employers avoid “risky” hiring from the Internet.
• In 2020, Intrro participated in the 500 Startups Acceleration Program in Georgia, which helped the founders develop their concept and get it going.
• Signals Venture Capital, the leading investor, is an independently managed, financially oriented €100 million German fund. According to Crunchbase, the fund mainly invests in seed and Series A phases in startups, focusing on B2B business models.

“Intrro solves a critical problem for companies by offering a systematic approach to referral programs. Finding talent is just one of the many benefits of using this platform utilizing employee network data,”

Managing Partner at Signals VC Christian Wenger comments the funding.

• Intrro intends to spend the fresh funds on the growth of the company, improvement of products, expansion of databases, and the engineering team.