One of the largest IT events in Kazakhstan, Digital Bridge International Forum, will host the annual Astana Hub Battle where technology startups compete to win cash prizes for product development, QazMonitor reports.
The forum themed “Central Eurasia as a new tech platform” will be held on September 28-29 in Nur-Sultan at EXPO. The purpose is to gather leading experts in the IT community to promote new ideas and solve current technological issues to facilitate development in the sphere of IT, science and digital innovations.
The highlight of the event program is the Astana Hub Battle, which is held every year with the aim to search for new participants in the IT ecosystem of Astana Hub, popularize domestic startup culture, and develop technological entrepreneurship in the country.
The best startups will receive cash checks to develop their IT product worth $10,000 for 1st place, $5,000 for 2nd place, and $3,000 for 3rd place.
"Having held such a battle for several years now, we see the results. The winners of previous years are successfully developing in the domestic IT market and have already exported their products abroad. These include startups Oquda, Parqour, UvU, KidSecurity, Abscrypt and others. Astana Hub Battle has become a platform where resilient and goal-oriented talents can shine. This is very important for any startup. We are ready to support them to reach a new level of development," CEO of Astana Hub Magzhan Madiev said.
To participate in the Battle, the startups must have a scalable project at the MVP or PMF stage, at least two key team members and a market experience of no more than two years. The 100 most competitive projects that applied to participate will make a one-minute presentation in the semifinals and the 10 best startups will make it to the finals, where the winners will be determined.
Applications will be accepted until September 20 at digitalbridge.kz/battle2022ru/.
Minister of Digital Development, Innovation and Aerospace Industry Bagdat Mussin noted that this year’s Digital Bridge forum “will be distinguished by its scale and may become the largest IT event in Kazakhstan”.
Traditionally, the forum is attended by leaders of the international IT community, Kazakh and foreign technology experts, professionals in the field of digital development, IT companies and startups, venture capitalists, technological entrepreneurs, representatives of government agencies and the media.
Participants are expected to include heads of the world’s leading IT companies as well as leaders of the best Central Asian startups.
Other events will include: the alley of IT startups, the exhibition of technoparks of the Organization of Turkic States and Central Asian countries, the exhibition of IT schools, an IT job fair, the launch of the first official offline TikTok platform for startups, VR and GameDev showcases.
