Arbuz.kz, $2M

E-commerce startup Arbuz.kz has raised $2 million from the owner of Aitas KZ Group Serik Tolukpaev.

Arbuz.kz is an online supermarket that was launched in 2011. Since the company was founded, it has acquired over 50,000 active buyers in Astana and Nur-Sultan and expects the number of service users to triple by the end of 2021.

OQUDA, $1M

Nur-Sultan-based educational market network platform OQUDA has attracted $1 million from business angel Marat Tolibaiev.

OQUDA, which was launched in 2018 on the base of Astana Hub, develops a SaaS platform for selling educational programs through distributors, as well as automating customer support at the post-sale stage.

Clockster, $750k

Clockster, a developer of a cloud-based HR automation system, has secured $750,000 from the Singapore-based Quest Ventures fund, Russian HR&ED Tech Accelerator and serial angel investor Talgat Ismail.

Clockster offers a tool for staff management designed for small and medium-sized businesses. It allows companies to automate such routine HR processes, as payroll, attendance record cards, and to manage employees work schedules.

Sagi, $260k

Sagi, a member of the international technopark Astana Hub, has raised $260,000 at a valuation of $1.3M. Private investors Nariman Shakabaev and Erzhan Almuhamedov participated in the round.

Sagi develops a mobile application that allows users to send digital gifts or gift certificates via Whatsapp, Telegram, Facebook, Instagram or other massagers in one click. 

CTOgram and ToiDriver, $200k

Members of Astana Hub CTOgram and ToiDriver have raised $200,000 in a seed round funding from private investors Adil Nurgozhin, Talgat Ismail and members of the Business Angels Club QazAngels.

CTOgram and ToiDriver are the search engines for finding auto service stations, auto parts and organizing events without intermediaries respectively.

AWSM Bank, $150k

Founded by Kazakhstani Alibek Zhunisbayev, full-service banking for teenagers AWSM Bank has secured $150,000 from 500 Startups in the frames of the agreement with QazTech Ventures.

AWSM Bank is aimed to educate its young users financially, as well as their parents, by intertwining theoretical content with full-service banking. 

Sacceess, $115k

Kazakhstan company ApartX, a member of Astana Hub, has raised $150,000 from a private investor for the developing its Saccess service.

Saccess is a mobile application for the owners of daily rent apartments that allows managing the property remotely by using smart door locks. 

Kid Security, $100k

Geo-tracking services developer Kid Security has raised a $100,000 seed round from private investor Talgat Izmail.

Kid Security is a mobile application that ensures child safety by allowing parents to know where their children are and how they spend their time.

Co-founded by Asset Mussayev and Belarusian Aleksey Akshakov, Green Bee develops the marketplace for organic and natural products. The platform is aimed to promote the sale of goods and services of small farmers, allowing them to find customers among urban residents. It also enables city dwellers to buy organic products without any intermediaries. 

Green Bee services are currently available in Almaty with plans to be expanded in other cities of Kazakhstan. Besides, according to CEO Akshakov, the startup wants to close the next investment round worth $250,000 in the first half of 2021. It will allow Green Bee to scale up its product in Europe.

To apply for this contest, the startups needed to introduce MVP that is aimed to solve market problems in an innovative way, as well as a strategy for the further development and scaling to the new markets. Besides, startups’ social responsibility and team competencies were also taken into account. 

AIN.TECH publishes a list of the best Kazakhstan-based IT-startups in 2020 according to Astana Hub.

1. OrionM2M

Founded: In 2016 by Denis Fedorov

OrionM2M is a fully integrated developer and manufacturer of end-to-end IoT solutions based on LoRaWAN technology. It designs all products in-house based on LoRa Alliance specifications, and its software and hardware equipment is fully compliant with any LoRaWAN network.

2. CEREBRA

Founded: In 2018 by Doszhan Zhusupov

CEREBRA is a project of Almaty AI Lab company, which provides IT-solutions based on AI and Machine Learning. CEREBRA is an automated diagnostics system letting to detect stroke through a computed tomography at early stages with a help of AI-devices. According to the startup, its solution is able to recognize a stroke within 4 and a half hours after the onset of symptoms.

3. Citix

Founded: In 2016 and led by CEO Yana Shoibekova

Citix creates transport navigation systems with an intellectual unit that serves comfortable stay in an urban environment. Its YEWA software manages the entire media smartboard network, which provides people with real-time relevant information including smartboards for drivers and pedestrians.

4. Clockster

Founded: In 2017 by Yerzhan Ryskaliyev

Clockster is HRtech startup that provides a tool for staff management designed for small and medium-sized businesses. It allows companies to automate such routine HR processes, as payroll, attendance record cards, and to manage employees’ work schedules, taking into account all vacations, sick leaves and time off. 

5. okoo

Founded: In 2019 by Dinmukhamed Junussov

okoo is an AI-based educational platform for schools and teachers that is aimed to improve informatics sessions, as well as to make those sessions more interesting for pupils. There are over 8,000 registered users and more than 150 teachers on the platform.

6. Campeat 

Founded: In 2018 by Nazerke Amanbek

Campeat is a marketing platform for food enterprises to drive more customers specifically during off-peak or slow hours by using discounts app with short, hourly based hot deals in a time frame the client needs.

7. i-Guard

Founded: In 2019

i-Guard offers video analytics solution. The AI-based system provides an analysis of space and detection of “emergency” situations in real-time.

8. SuperMoms Club

Founded: In 2019 by Azat Hayrikenov

SuperMoms Club is a mobile application for pregnant women, which helps to reduce the infant death rate and lead the process of pregnancy in the right way. It offers over 20 smart thematic modules and 150 tips and articles for a healthy pregnancy from medical experts, as well as 24/7 online support from doctors and community. 

9. QuantDART

Founded: In 2020 by Anderson Woo and Edward Wong

QuantDART is a digital asset management company that provides custodial services and digital investment products. Using its mobile app, clients can manage their asset portfolio easily – track the market data, exchange the digital assets and fiats, participate in investment products.

10. Paloma365

Founded: In 2013 by Vladislav Golubev

Paloma365 provides cloud solutions for business processes automation including financial, marketing, HR, warehouse and other services. The system runs on Windows and Android platforms, so it can be installed both on ordinary tablets and laptops, as well as on specialized POS systems.

Clockster offers a tool for staff management designed for small and medium-sized businesses. It allows companies to automate such routine HR processes, as payroll, attendance record cards, and to manage employees work schedules, taking into account all sick leaves and time off, and also to get reports and attendance analytics of its staff.

Clockster offers its services on a subscription-based model with a free 7-days trial. A pricing plan for each company depends on the number of employees and started at $5 per month. Since the startup has launched its system in 2017, it has acquired more than 160 clients from Kazakhstan, Russia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, the Philippines and Singapore.

This is the second funding round for Clockster. Previous seed investments in the amount of $340,000 were raised by the startup in September 2018. That time investors included the Kazakh venture fund ABC-I2BF and business angel Olzhas Zhienkulov, the co-founder and CEO of the Singapore-based Paladigm Capital fund.

As the founder and CEO of Clockster Yerzhan Ryskaliev pointed out, the new investments will be spent for the scaling up its product in Southeast Asia and CIS counties, as well as marketing operations.

Arbuz.kz is an online supermarket that was launched in 2011 in Astana. On October 2020 its services expanded to Nur-Sultan. Since the company was founded, it has acquired over 50,000 active buyers and expects the number of service users to triple by the end of 2021.

“This deal is undoubtedly a new stage of development for our company. Our big idea has always been and remains to build the best online supermarket in Kazakhstan for our beloved customers. And we are very pleased that Serik Tolukpayev, one of the most experienced businessmen in the country, is joining our group of investors,” the current CEO of Arbuz.kz Aleksej Li said.  

The company will invest the raised capital into the further development of its digital platform, as well as in improving the customer experience.

Sagi develops a mobile application that allows users to send digital gifts or gift certificates via Whatsapp, Telegram, Facebook, Instagram or other massagers in one click. There is also an option to create a list of desired gifts, as well as to check what is staying in the friends’ wish lists.

The solution is aimed to solve the problem of huge losses that businesses incur during the quarantine. Sagi application allows its customers to earn online and 24/7, the CEO and founder of Sagi Zhaksyilyik Eselbaev says. 

The startup is negotiating with new partners to fill the range of its online store now. It is planning to spend the proceeds to the development of the application, as well as to its scaling in Kazakhstan.

ICEYE, $87M

ICEYE, a SpaceTech startup, has raised an $87 million Series C round of funding. Into account, the funding round is significantly larger than originally planned, which is especially notable in the economically unstable 2020.

The round was led by True Ventures – a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm that invests in early-stage technology startups, with participation from OTB Ventures.

 ICEYE is a world-leading SAR data provider. The company is building and operating its own commercial constellation of radar imaging satellites, with SAR data available to global customers since 2018.

Bitpanda, $52M

Vienna-based fintech Bitpanda has closed a $52 million Series A funding round, the largest Europe’s Series A round of 2020.

The round was led by Valar Ventures with participation from Vienna-based VC Speedinvest.

 Bitpanda is a popular trading platform for Bitcoin, Ethereum, gold, and over 30 other digital assets with more than 1.2 million users and 190 team members. As the company declares, it is aimed to provide easy-to-use, safe and trustworthy access to any digital assets for both new and experienced users.

Cosmose, $15M

Warsaw-based martech Cosmose has attracted $15 million in a Series A funding round pushing its valuation to more than $100 million.

The round was led by Tiga Investments, with the participation of OTB Ventures, TDJ Pitango funds, as well as investors from India, Israel and Singapore.

Cosmose develops a data analytics platform that predicts consumers’ offline shopping behaviour. The company gathers anonymous mobile user IDs and precise geolocation data that shows customers’ real behaviour in stores.

Shapr3D, $6.5M

Shapr3D has announced a $6.5 million Series A funding. To date, Shapr3D has raised a total of $7.3 million in funding over four rounds.

The round was led by top European early-stage venture capital firms Point Nine and Creandum (one of the original investors in Spotify).

Shapr3D is a direct modeling tool with an intuitive 3D modeling user interface on a tablet device. It is easy to learn and easy to use. Perfect for engineers, industrial designers, jewelry makers, 3D hobbyists, architects.

Mercuryo.io, $2.9M

Tallinn-based startup Mercuryo.io, a crypto wallet and BTC acquiring services for business, has closed $2.9 million seed funding.

The seed round was led by Target Global.

Mercuryo.io is known as a technologically developed state that has a legal definition of cryptocurrency status as an alternative means of payment. Mercuryo`s mission is to introduce cryptocurrencies into daily life and allow people to handle their crypto transactions casually.

VersaBox, $2.9M

Warsaw-based smart robotics company VersaBox has announced the completion of a $2.9M funding round. 

The investors are the Polish VC funds Fidiasz EVC, SpeedUp Energy Innovation, Movens VC and RST Ventures for Earth.

VersaBox develops robots and digital solutions for logistics. Its AUTONOMY@WORK system allows customers to implement and manage intralogistics processes, such as transport of goods and products within companies, production facilities, or warehouses.

Turing College, $1.4M

Turing College, a Lithuanian Edtech startup, has received $1.4 million.

The funding was from a very successful cybersecurity company Tesonet, an e-commerce startup Omnisend, a video gaming firm Unity Technologies LT, and Startup Wise Guys with participation from the EU Research and Innovation Fund.

The goal of Turing College is to become the leading education platform for top IT specialists in the Northern and Eastern European regions. The company is planning to spend the proceeds on a new study program of Data Science.

OQUDA, $1M

Nur-Sultan-based educational market network platform OQUDA has attracted $1 million from business angel Marat Tolibaiev.

OQUDA develops a SaaS platform for selling educational programs through distributors, as well as automating customer support at the post-sale stage.

The platform is aimed to help educational recruiting agencies to optimize customer management processes, freeing up to 50-70% of their time towards increasing sales. 

Linx4, $1M

The Vienna-based company operating one-stop equipment financing marketplace has raised a $1 million investment round.

The round was led by business angels including Rolf Steffens, Peter Oser, Markus Buncsak.

Linx4 provides a solution for usage-based and pay-per-use financing for Original Equipment Manufacturers.

Cartloop, $350K

Cartloop, an eCommerce startup, has raised a total of $350K in funding over 1 round.

It was a pre-Seed round led by GapMinder – a Venture Capital Fund, targeting IT Software and Services startups in Romania and CEE. Also, the round was backed by Tamas Cristian, the co-Founder of TypingDNA.

Cartloop is the human-engagement platform designed to delight and convert customers through 1:1 conversations. The platform is aimed to help e-commerce brands build customer relationships and increase sales by sending real-time messages.

Astana HUB Accelerator

Astana Hub is an international technopark for IT-startups that was opened in 2018. More than 300 projects have already taken part in its acceleration program, supported by the Kazakhstan government. 

For whom: Technology startups from the CIS countries that develop solutions in the field ofIoT, AI, e-commerce, AR/VR, educational or financial technologies, IT security, Big Data and Machine Learning, as well as online and mobile games.

Startups can apply at the stage of MVP development and need to have at least 2 key team members.

What is offered: The acceleration program lasts three months. The startups will develop their project under the guidance of mentors and experts from various fields, and have access to program’s partners, investors and government networks. Astana Hub also offers a place in its coworking and fiscal relief for the participants.

Terms of participation: Participation in the program is free of charge for both residents of Astana Hub and participants from other countries. 

You can leave your application for the Acceleration 9.0 online-program on its website. 

Portfolio: Monetika, Zanbar, Kokozhe Green Lab, Proportunity are among others.

StartUP Kazakhstan 

StartUP Kazakhstan is an international acceleration program of an autonomous cluster fund Tech Garden and Ministry of Industry and Infrastructure Development of the Republic of Kazakhstan. 96 startups have already received financing in the common amount of $2.5 million during 3 program releases. 

For whom: Local and foreign startups with Industry 4.0, new materials and energy, smart city, fintech, banking, retail and e-commerce, edtech or telekom projects.

What is offered: Three-month online acceleration program includes diagnostics of each startup, creating an individual plan for its development in Kazakhstan market and a targeted educational program. StartUP Kazakhstan also offers support of the government and national corporations and provides investment for the startups in the amount of over $10,000.

Terms of participation: StartUP Kazakhstan does not take equity from startups but concludes with them an option agreement. 

Portfolio: Speakus LTD, Smart LR, Partszone, CleanRoad and others.

Investment readiness accelerator

Investment readiness accelerator is a program of MOST business-incubator, the first private business incubator in Kazakhstan, which supports entrepreneurs-beginners on all stages of business development. 

For whom: Early-stage IT-startups from Central Asia with functional MVP and scalable education, health, agro, financing, insurance, e-commerce or retail solutions.

Terms of participation: The startup is able to choose the terms of the participation – to pay a fixed amount of $840 or free – it means to share the equity up to 1-8%, depending on the company’s valuation. 

What is offered: MOST offers different facilities for startups depending on the kind of terms of participation they have chosen – for $840 / for free:

• supervision of mentors who are investors at every stage of the program for 5 hours / 1 year;
• the possibility of considering a project in the MOST Venture Fund I for up to $100,000 / $500,000;
• consultations of MOST experts for 10 hours / in unlimited mode; 
• access to MOST Community of our partners, mentors, business-angels, investors, venture funds, entrepreneurs, startups, experts.

After Pitch Day, each startup will be able to get over $50,000 from one of the 30 investors.

The recruiting process for the September program is already closed. You can follow the news on the MOST website.

Portfolio: More than 90 participants including Kid Security, ApartX and others. 

NURIS

NURIS is an Innovation cluster of Nazarbayev University. It offers two programs for startup development: ABC incubation x Tech Central Asia and ABC Quick Start Acceleration. 

For whom and what is offered: ABC incubation x TCA in partnership with Shell Kazakhstan and ABC Quick Start Acceleration programs are dedicated to innovative early-stage startups, as well as traditional business projects with a potential to enter global markets. It can be IT, IoT, e-commerce, Big Data, AI, Machine Learning, hardware or solutions in industries agriculture, construction activity, healthcare industries.

The incubator supports each participant in creating a business model of startup and MVP. Shell Kazakhstan also provides grants for best projects in the amount of up to $2,500 and pre-seed financing $5,000.

The accelerator provides mentorship, access to the Nazarbayev University partners and infrastructure, financial support in the amount of up to $100,000 from ABC-I2BF Seed Fund for startups with a complete team and a working prototype. 

Terms of participation: Participation in both programs is free of charge. However, in the frames of ABC incubation x TCA program the Nazarbayev University has a right to acquire a 3% of the authorized capital of the participant’s company that has reached the final stage of the program.

Currently, the application process for both programs is closed. More details about the next programs can be found here.  

Portfolio: On-Moms, Jobster, Aero, TAZAmat, Space3D are among ABC incubation x TCA graduates. Kunde, Cleverest Technologies, EGIStic, KOMPRA and others are the ABC Quick Start Acceleration alumni.

UiPath, $225M

The Robotic Process Automation company UiPath has closed its Series E investment round, raising $225 million at a post-money valuation of $10.2 billion.

The round was led by Alkeon Capital Management with participation from Accel, Coatue, Dragoneer, IVP, Madrona Venture Group, Sequoia Capital, Tencent, Tiger Global, Wellington.

UiPath designs and develops end-to-end platform for hyper-automation, combining the  RPA solution with a full suite of capabilities that enable each organization to scale digital business operations quickly. 

Varjo, $54M

Helsinki-based Varjo company has closed a Series C round worth about $54 million.

The investors include Lifeline Ventures, Atomico, EQT Ventures, Volvo Cars Tech Fund and new ones, such as Tesi, NordicNinja, and Swisscanto Invest.

Varjo is creating the advanced VR/XR hardware and software for industrial use, merging the real and virtual worlds seamlessly together in human-eye resolution. 

Supermetrics, $47M

The data management and analysis tool for marketers Supermetrics has raised $47 million in a new funding round.

The round was led by Highland Europe with participation from IVP, Amit Agarwal, CPO at Datadog, and Ilkka Paananen, CEO of Supercell.

Supermetrics is a SaaS tool that pulls data from various sources to use for web analytics, social media, and online marketing. 

Swappie, $42.3M

Helsinki-based end-to-end online marketplace for buying and selling refurbished smartphones Swappie has closed a $42.3M Series B funding round.

TESI, Lifeline Ventures, Reaktor Ventures, and Inventure are among the investors.

The company is aimed to refurbish iPhones using the latest technology and reducing environmental waste. 

PandaDoc, $30M

Document automation solution PandaDoc has attracted $30 million in a Series B financing round led by One Peak Partners. 

Microsoft’s (М12) Venture Fund, Savano Capital Partners, Rembrandt Venture Partners, and EBRD Venture Capital Investment Programme participated in the round.

Founded by Mikita Mikado, San Francisco-based PandaDoc company develops software for the full cycle of the sales documents automation from proposal to electronic signature and payment.

Quuppa, $23M

The global provider of Real-Time Locating Systems Quuppa has received $23 million in its first-ever round of funding led by Finland-based private equity fund Bocap and Tech Consulting Group TCG Oy.

The company develops a technology platform that provides real-time tracking with centimetre-level accuracy, which gives an opportunity for customers in a variety of industries to correctly and reliably locate Bluetooth-enabled devices.  

Infermedica, $10.25M

Digital healthcare company Infermedica has received $10.25 million in a Series A funding round led by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and Heal Capital. 

Existing investors Karma Ventures, Inovo Venture Partners, and DreamIT Ventures also participated in the round.

Infermedica develops machine learning and AI-tools for preliminary medical diagnosis and patient triage including Symptom Checker and COVID-19 Risk Assessment.

Kompany, €6M 

Austrian global business verification company Kompany has attracted €6 million from Fairway Global Investment and Global Brain as leading investors. 

Previous ones European Super Angels Club and the startup’s management team also participated in the round.

Kompany provides real-time audit-proof business verification data for business “know your customer” needs.

FitAdept, $260k

Polish provider of personal training FitAdept has attracted over $260,000 from AgriTech Hub and three business angels.

FitAdept develops the B2C fitness platform for conducting individual online workouts, as well as a network of personal trainers in Poland. 

AWSM Bank, $150k

Full-service banking for teenagers AWSM Bank has raised $150,000 from 500 Startups in the frames of the agreement with QazTech Ventures.

AWSM Bank is an edtech company that develops online-banking for teens. The startup is aimed to educate its young users financially, as well as their parents, by intertwining theoretical content with full-service banking.

OQUDA, which was launched in 2018 on the base of Astana Hub, develops a SaaS platform for selling educational programs through distributors, as well as automating customer support at the post-sale stage.

According to the CEO of the company Beimbet Babiiev, the platform is aimed to help educational recruiting agencies to optimize customer management processes, freeing up to 50-70% of their time towards increasing sales. 

Besides, the company offers full guidance in the process of establishing a new agency that will provide intermediary services concerning international studying for students.   

OQUDA will invest raised capital in the further development of the platform and entering the Indian market. India was chosen because of the high demand for using the services of educational agencies for entering the foreign higher educational institutions by high school students there, the company emphasizes.

CTOgram and ToiDriver are the search engines for finding auto service stations, auto parts and organizing events without intermediaries respectively.

Since the CTOgram application was launched in 2017, more than 116,000 orders have been received for a total amount of over $6 million. To date, its database consists of 5,000 car service points in Nur-Sultan and Almaty. ToiDriver service received over 15,000 requests priced at more than $21.5 million. There are over 13,000 restaurants, artists and other users providing event services registered on the platform. 

According to the CEO of both startups Zhandos Tursumbaev, services are aimed to save customers’ time and money and give them an opportunity to choose the best price and proper specialists or places. The companies are planning to spend the proceeds on further product development and entering the new markets. 

AWSM Bank is an edtech company that develops online-banking for teens. The startup is aimed to educate its young users financially, as well as their parents, by intertwining theoretical content with full-service banking. Using AWSM Bank teenagers can learn strategies to maximize savings, track their spending habits, and earn money by completing chores and completing financial literacy online courses. 

“We give teens ages 13-18 a theoretical financial education in the format of short 30-second Tik Tok-style videos. We turn theoretical knowledge into practical skills, giving them a fully functional but at the same time safe banking services,” Zhunisbayev says.

500 Startups is the US early-stage startup accelerator and venture capital firm. In 2019 it signed a partnership agreement with QazTech Ventures on the establishment of a joint fund with a capitalization of $150 million.

Kid Security is a mobile application that ensures child safety by allowing parents to know where their children are and how they spend their time. To make children be interested in service use, developers created a motivation and reward system – kids will get real presents for their academic achievements, for doing household chores, for succeeding in self-development or educational games the application offers. 

The startup was launched at the beginning of 2019 by Talgat Aiapov and Asat Ashamanov, who previously worked together under the GPS children’s watches project. Since their participation in the Astana Hub acceleration programme Kid Security has begun to grow rapidly. 

“Today we have more than 170 thousand downloads of the application, 20% of which are from Kazakhstan, 74% – from Russia and 6% – from the CIS and European countries. Totally, 26,000 active users have been registered since the launch of our Kid Security service,” Ashamanov tells.

Developers assure the money they have received will be invested in the further development of the technological part of their product and its scaling to the US, UK and Israel markets.

Saccess is a mobile application for the owners of daily rent apartments that allows managing the property remotely by using smart door locks. As the founder of ApartX Kanat Keldibekov tells, the company produces software for over 50 varieties of smart locks that are made in China. 

After the lock’s installing, the owner receives a time-limited PIN code which can be changed at any time by security reasons. The Saccess platform also provides the necessary functionality for renting out and it is automatically synchronized with Booking and Airbnb. 

Now the company works with clients from Nur-Sultan, Almaty and Moscow. As Keldibekov claims, attracted funds will be invested into the Russian customer engagement mainly. The startup is holding negotiations with 200 potential clients from Moscow, as well as with clients from Karaganda and Kokshetau.