The annual volume of venture investments in Uzbekistan exceeded $6 million

The field of venture investment in Central Asia and the Caucasus has been actively growing in recent years, Spot reports, citing a report from the RISE Research agency.

The study was conducted jointly with KPMG, Crunchbase, EA Group, BGlobal Ventures and the Ministry of Digital Development of Kazakhstan. According to his data, the amount of venture transactions in the region in 2023 exceeded $110 million.

Kazakhstan became the absolute leader of the venture market, where the volume of investments exceeded $80 million. Georgia followed with $21.6 million, Uzbekistan took third place with $6 million.

The greatest interest from investors is observed in the areas of fintech, logistics technologies (LogTech) and business management. Most investments in startups in the republic are made at the initial stages of financing.

The average transaction size at the end of the year was $204 thousand. Compared to the previous year, the figure increased 1.5 times.

A little more than half of the deals were concluded in the seed round, another 22% in the preliminary round. Of the remaining deals, 13.5% each were Series A and growth rounds.

As Deputy Director of KPMG Caucasus & Central Asia Erke Asemova notes, venture funds were in the lead in terms of the amount of transactions last year. At the same time, business angels also invested in several projects; IT Park is also involved in this process.

Attracting foreign venture funds and business angels contributes to a favorable investment climate, noted Deputy Head of IT Park Azamat Juraev. In addition to increasing investment, this “enriches the local market with new knowledge and experience”, – he pointed out.

The head of the Venture Investment Association, Dilshod Zufarov, named medicine, education, HRTech and EcoTech as relevant areas for startups. He called on foundations to more actively look for projects in new sectors for their development.