At the major international conference TechCrunch Disrupt 2024, held October 28-30 in San Francisco, California, Silkroad Innovation Hub organized its Central Eurasia Pavilion. It showcased 24 innovative startups from Central Eurasia, with 16 projects presented under the unified Central Asian Innovation Hubs brand, combining the Astana Hub and IT Park Uzbekistan technology parks.
TechCrunch Disrupt annually gathers more than 10,000 participants, including entrepreneurs, investors, and leaders of the technology industry. This year, the conference became an important platform for Central Asian startups seeking to enter the US market. Silkroad Innovation Hub, created to present Central Eurasia as a unified technological region, became the largest platform for demonstrating regional solutions in artificial intelligence, ClimateTech, HealthTech, and fintech.
Silkroad Innovation Hub founder Aset Abdualiyev noted that the hub is the only one in the world that unites five Central Asian countries, as well as Azerbaijan, Georgia, Mongolia, and Turkey. Within a year, the hub has become a center of attraction for startups in Silicon Valley: more than 80 residents have attracted over $30 million in investment, and about 200 events have been held with the participation of more than 10,000 people.
In the Central Eurasia Pavilion, Kazakhstan presented such projects as Yaya, a subscription service for children’s entertainment centers; Arlan Biotech, developing AI-based nanotechnologies for medicine; FOREST HERO, a startup fighting climate change; Call2action, a smart voice messaging platform; pwron.ai, an AI assistant for research; Bult, a cloud platform; Parqour, a parking optimization platform; and TrustExam, an online education system.
Astana Hub CEO Magzhan Madiyev spoke about the work to support the entry of Central Asian startups into the international market. He mentioned the Hero Training program with Draper University, the Silkroad Innovation Hub project, and the CESV conference for Central Asian startups.
Uzbekistan presented projects such as Uzum, Uzinfocom, BILLZ, Smartup, Call24, Datagaze, Point.ai, and GeoMotive.
IT Park Director Farhod Ibragimov noted the potential of Central Asia in the global technology arena and the role of the Central Asian Innovation Hubs alliance in supporting regional startups.
TechCrunch Disrupt is a major event that allows startups to achieve global recognition. Companies such as Dropbox and Fitbit first presented their innovations at TechCrunch Disrupt.
