UAE attracts startups from Central Asia as area sees $96m enterprise investments 

Enterprise investments in Central Asia grew to $96m in 2024 – a 7 per cent enhance in comparison with 2023, in response to RISE Analysis information.

With restricted native markets, startups from the area are more and more increasing internationally, adopting international scaling fashions.

Greater than 20 startups based by entrepreneurs from Central Asia are already working within the UAE, making the nation one of many key locations for regional entrepreneurs seeking to scale.

Central Asia startups in UAE

Ainur Zhanturina, of RISE Analysis, stated: “Kazakhstan maintains its management place and stays probably the most lively enterprise funding market in Central Asia, accounting for 74 per cent of the full funding quantity within the area.

“In 2024, Kazakhstani startups attracted $71m, leading to a complete valuation of $710m”.

Of the full $71m in enterprise offers in Kazakhstan in 2024, 53 per cent got here from overseas traders.

Overseas investments got here from the UAE, in addition to the USA, UK, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, and different nations.

The typical deal dimension additionally elevated, with 40 per cent of offers in 2024 starting from $200,000 to $500,000.

That is considerably larger than in 2021, when 62 per cent of offers have been lower than $200,000.

Murat Abdrakhmanov, Enterprise Capitalist and Founding father of MA7 Ventures, stated: “Central Asia’s startup market is gaining international consideration with growing alternatives for worldwide traders. At MA7, we not solely spend money on native startups but additionally provide market insights and steerage to assist overseas traders navigate Kazakhstan’s enterprise ecosystem successfully”.

Uzbekistan demonstrated probably the most spectacular progress, as funding quantity elevated 2.7 occasions to succeed in $17.5m throughout 38 offers. The typical deal dimension grew fourfold to $460,000.

In 2024, Uzbek startups attracted the vast majority of investments from native traders (over 52 per cent), whereas the share of investments from worldwide traders decreased by 11 per cent in comparison with 2023.

Kyrgyzstan attracted $1.7m with an annual progress fee of 19 per cent since 2022.

The nation stands out for its excessive stage of feminine entrepreneur involvement – practically a 3rd of offers are associated to women-founded tasks, and such startups attracted two-thirds of the full funding quantity.

Accelerators and hubs are the leaders in Kyrgyzstan’s enterprise market by variety of investments made (over 50 per cent), nevertheless, enterprise funds accounted for the principle share of funding quantity (66 per cent), most of that are situated overseas.

Tajikistan attracted $4.6m in 2024, specializing in Islamic fintech and AI-powered credit score scoring fashions.

The event of the enterprise market was facilitated by tax incentives for startups in IT Park Dushanbe and the launch of a $5m enterprise fund.

Erik Aubakirov, CEO of EA Group, stated: “The expansion of enterprise capital in Central Asia isn’t just a rise in investments, however the creation of a sustainable innovation ecosystem. To unlock the area’s full potential, it’s obligatory to draw institutional traders and develop worldwide partnerships”.

Among the many key sectors attracting enterprise investments within the area in 2024, synthetic intelligence, fintech, and academic and medical applied sciences are main.

Furthermore, the affect of synthetic intelligence is even larger, as many AI startups are categorized by their main industries somewhat than the AI sector as such.

Analysts predict continued progress of the Central Asian enterprise market within the coming years, noting its excessive potential and gradual integration into the worldwide ecosystem.