Kazakhstan is well known for its abundant deposits of oil, gas and metals, but the country’s high-tech sector is also expanding. Not only that, but some of its successful startups are leveraging the country’s natural advantages as a producer of raw materials to develop innovative new products and services, Alim Khamitov, CEO of Most Ventures, said in an interview with bne IntelliNews. 

Most Ventures, based in Kazakhstan’s commercial capital Almaty, has been operating for over 15 years and is an important part of the country’s tech scene. It started out as a business incubator back in 2011, and has since evolved into a diversified investment group. As well as venture capital financing and its business accelerator, it also has hubs in both Almaty and Uzbekistan’s capital Tashkent, runs an investors club for business angels and recently launched a neobank. 

“Our mission is to support tech entrepreneurs from the Central Eurasian market, wherever they are. If they build a global tech company, we’d love to be part of this journey by supporting them with financial and non-financial instruments,” said Khamitov. 

“We see ourselves as a finance investment group. We still do a lot of ecosystem things, but the core essence of the business is about funding and investments into the high potential tech companies,” explained Khamitov from his office in Most’s Almaty hub. 

Occupying four floors of an eight storey building, the hub currently hosts 83 startups. As outlined by Khamitov, the hub is more than a co-working space, it offers “a lot of content and its own community”. Space is sought after, with priority given to companies with innovative ideas that can benefit from the frequent events and networking opportunities. 

The wraparound balcony, with its view over the city of Almaty and surrounding mountains, currently covered in snow, comes into its own in summer, when it is used for events as well as providing an outdoor working space for tenants. Altogether, Most organised over 300 events in 2024 alone, and more are planned for this year, while Almaty will also be host to this year’s Central Asian Venture Forum in June. Meanwhile, Most is considering opening more hubs in other cities in the region. 

A new tech region emerges 

Most Ventures launched its first $5mn fund to back pre-seed and seed-stage startups, investing in 28 companies to date. Today it is working on growing its portfolio and potential exits. 

At the same time, the firm is preparing to launch a second $30mn fund, with a target of closing half by mid-year and reaching full investment capacity by the end of 2025. 

“With the second fund we would love to invest in late Seed up to Series A rounds. We will have the same mandate – investing in Central Eurasian founders wherever they are – but into scale-ups. We are also ready to invest globally into the companies which would like to scale to Central Eurasia or to other markets through our region,” said Khamitov. 

Most Ventures defines the region as encompassing all five Central Asian countries, the Caucasus, and parts of Eastern Europe. As well as startups based in the region, it also backs those launched by Central Eurasian founders elsewhere in the world. 

“Out of 28 companies, half are not here in Kazakhstan, they are scaling globally … the good thing is the R&D for the most part is still in Kazakhstan and Central Asia,” according to Khamitov. 

Companies backed by the fund also include two startups from Malaysia and Singapore that are looking to scale within Central Eurasia, to benefit from the talent there as well as access to growing markets. 

Tech talent

Looking at Kazakhstan and the Central Asian region mainly as a location for natural resources extraction is to overlook the country’s deep pool of youthful talent. 

“Our talents are really good … Also, it’s a young population. In Central Eurasia, 60% or more of the population is young, under 40,” said Khamitov. 

Expanding on this, he added: “We have a history of having good schools and education in the post-Soviet countries.” 

Another advantages that some startups in Kazakhstan are leveraging is the country’s natural resource base. 

“We are sector agnostic. Of course we have some priority verticals like fintech, AI, agrotech, mobilitytech and HRtech. What I like even more is deeptech. I can really say we have deep technology startups. One in MiningTech, another in producing hardware, and a third in OilTech,” Khamitov told bne IntelliNews. 

Dolon, for example, has developed a geological and mineral information system (GMIS) that allows users to download, process and analyse geological data directly from a web browser. The company is based in Almaty and Kyrgyzstan’s capital, Bishkek. Dereknet AI’s Derek Suite is a web-based platform created for the oil and gas industry. 

“Kazakhstan has many great software companies in different verticals. But I think as a country we should find industries where we can definitely create a valuable products for bigger markets,” he comments. 

“My personal view is one of the things we still underestimate is industry 4.0. Everything connected to mining tech, oil tech and gas tech can be a huge thing for Kazakhstan specifically.” 

Fintech is another sector where Kazakhstan performing strongly. Digital banking and e-commerce are booming. This gained international recognition in 2024 when Kaspi, the creator of the country’s first banking super app, held a $1bn IPO on Nasdaq. 

Artificial intelligence (AI) is also an important area, with 13 of the 28 companies backed through Most’s first fund in the AI industry.

Climate tech is also on the agenda. Most Ventures is incorporating green technology investments into its second fund. “Kazakhstan has the goal of reaching net zero emissions by 2060. We would love to invest in climate tech. We have a pipeline, since we already implemented some CleanTech programmes,” Khamitov says. 

The funding gap

Over time there has been strong growth in the number and value of venture capital investments, according to Most Ventures’ research. In 2022 (the latest data available) there were 43 deals with a value of $35mn, up from just 27 deals with a value of $7mn in 2018.

Despite the growth of Kazakhstan’s startup ecosystem, the challenge of funding remains, although this is starting to change. With more venture capital funds entering the market – there are now seven to eight active players – the startup landscape is maturing. 

The government is stepping in to support this through initiatives such as a new $1bn fund-of-funds programme aimed at supporting local and international funds with an expectation that they invest in Central Eurasian startups. Business angel investment is also rising, with Most Ventures running a 100-member angel investor club. 

“There is still a funding gap on the market. I usually say the amount of $200mn-300mn is needed for the IT sector,” says Khamitov. 

According to Most Ventures’ figures over the five years to 2022, the largest number of deals, 46%, were at the seed stage, and only 5% at the expansion stage.

“It’s good that more funds have appeared. There are seven or eight active funds on the market already. However, it’s still not enough and most of the funds – like our first fund – invest in early stage. For the last two to three years, what we observed – and why we created our second fund – is Series A companies, companies that already that have a business, but need to get more funding for rapid growth. So we have some funding at the beginning, but there is a gap in the later stages.” 

This is important as the startups from the region, among them those that were backed by Most’s first fund, are now maturing. All of these form parts of Kazakhstan’s growing tech ecosystem, for which investment is needed across all stages of growth.