On January 8, the Tech Garden innovation hub announced the resumption of its venture capital investments through GVA Alatau Fund LLC under the management of MOST Investments, QazMonitor reports citing the press service of the company.
Baurzhan Kankin, CEO of Tech Garden, highlighted that the relaunch of operations aims to establish a full-cycle Industry 4.0 ecosystem in Kazakhstan, encompassing accelerator programs, funding for startup projects, and startup battles.
Now, thanks to the [the relaunch of Alatau] venture fund, DeepTech startups will have the opportunity to secure venture capital funding. Within this framework, Tech Garden will maintain its role as an institutional player without establishing a market position. Therefore, MOST Investments, chosen from among Kazakh venture funds, was selected as the management company. With the backing of all partners and subsoil users, Tech Garden is prepared to allocate $500,000 annually for the development of Industry 4.0 projects, underscoring the importance of collaborative efforts for the successful implementation of innovative ideas in the field of technology.
Kankin emphasized that the Alatau Fund will concentrate on investing in industrial startups based in Kazakhstan and the Central Eurasian region, along with companies founded by entrepreneurs from this region. Additionally, startups from Central and Eastern Europe will be considered.
Over a five-year investment period, the Fund plans to invest with amounts ranging from $50,000 to $750,000 per company at various stages of development (pre-seed/seed/series A).
The average investment checks are as follows:
Pre-Seed: average investment size between $50,000 and $150,000
Seed: average investment size between $150,000 and $300,000
Series A: average investment size between $250,000 and $750,000
Established by the government in 2014, Tech Garden forms an innovation cluster of Industry 4.0 projects, bringing together entities involved in industrial, educational, research and development.
MOST is a platform for the development of technology entrepreneurship and innovation in Kazakhstan. In 2020, the company expanded its activities by creating the first private venture fund in Central Asia, MOST Ventures, specializing in investing in promising startups at the seed and pre-seed stages, with a primary focus on technology startups.