On May 22, founders of 15 IT startups from Kazakhstan, Turkey, Kyrgyzstan and Mongolia began a five-week acceleration program in Silicon Valley. They were selected based on the results of a joint pre-acceleration program of Astana Hub International Technopark and Draper University in San Mateo, Calfornia in partnership with My Ventures, QazMonitor reports citing Astana Hub.
The IT companies successfully qualified for the second stage of the Hero Training program. The program was opened by Tim Draper, founder of Draper University and co-founder of Draper Fisher Jurvetson Venture Company.
Initially, 199 startups applied for the program, 80 of which were pre-accelerated before the final batch of 15 startups was selected.
The lucky ones were Flowsell.me (Kazakhstan), ozen (Kazakhstan), CITIX (Kazakhstan), SpaceLab (Kazakhstan), Smartestprep (Kazakhstan), Smart Technologies (Kyrgyzstan), BEEP (Kazakhstan), beyne.ai (Kazakhstan), FIBO CLOUD (Mongolia), Sqm-invest (Kazakhstan), Connected Home Ltd (Kazakhstan), MEDIXBOT (Turkey), Med365 (Kazakhstan), Big Dream Lab (Kazakhstan), Alaqan Technologies (Kazakhstan).
Also, four startups, Beyne.ai, GoDays, Beep and Smartestprep, received investments of $30,000 each from the program's partner My Ventures.
"This is a unique opportunity that we are giving our startups for the first time. We are happy that the composition of the participants is very international. In addition to Kazakhstani startups, we have also given the opportunity to startups from Kyrgyzstan and Mongolia to study in Silicon Valley, and for the first time, a startup from Turkey is participating in our program. In addition, based on the results of the two-week pre-acceleration, the Draper University Ventures team decided to invite a number of projects to a follow-up meeting in addition to the 15 finalists. These participants will have an additional opportunity to raise up to $100,000 of seed funding from Draper University's dedicated alumni fund", - said Magzhan Madiev, CEO of Astana Hub.
As part of the partnership between Astana Hub and Draper University in Silicon Valley, the startups will undergo an intensive acceleration program and will have the opportunity to scale their project to the global market, including the US market.
The intensive acceleration program takes place on campus at Draper University and provides housing and workspace for all startups for up to 6 months. During this period, participants will have a unique opportunity to raise investment and enter the US market under the guidance of experienced technology entrepreneurs and Draper ecosystem experts.
The cooperation agreement was signed by Magzhan Madiev, Director General of Astana Hub, and Asra Nadeem, President of Draper University on March 10, 2023 in San Mateo (California) during the official visit of Bagdat Musin, Minister of Digital Development, Innovation and Aerospace Industry of Kazakhstan, to the US.
