Kazakhstan emerges as Central Eurasia’s tech powerhouse, bridging Gulf and Global Markets

Today, more than 2,100 tech companies are registered as participants, including more than 500 with foreign participation. In 2025, their combined revenue reached $1.7 billion, a roughly 50-fold increase in the past seven years. Astana Hub takes 1% of participant revenue, a model that helps fund its operations and supports financial sustainability. It also offers tax incentives, regional hubs across Kazakhstan and soft-landing tools such as the Digital Nomad Visa and Digital Nomad Residency.

The hub is also becoming a bridge between Central Asia and the Gulf. “The UAE is already the gateway to the Gulf, and we serve as the gateway to the CIS, Central Eurasia and Central Asia for UAE companies such as Presight and for UAE and Gulf investors,” Madiyev says.

QUOTE 16/12 WORDS 86/87 CHARS “We serve as the gateway to the CIS, Central Eurasia and Central Asia for UAE companies.” - MAGZHAN MADIYEV, FOUNDING CEO, ASTANA HUB

MA7 Ventures

INTRO 22/22 WORDS 180/161 CHARS MA7 Ventures Founder Murat Abdrakhmanov states Kazakhstan’s startup scene is producing globally competitive companies and widening investor access through structured capital tools.

How is MA7 helping to grow Kazakhstan's startup talent?

MA7 Ventures is a single-family office with a managing company registered at the AIFC. Under its umbrella, we operate a securities fund and a venture fund, both structured as rolling funds and financed by my own capital.

Alongside those, we run the MA7 Angel Club. Over nearly two years of operation, the club has deployed approximately $12 to $13 million across 14 startups. We screen around 800 startups annually.

How is the innovation ecosystem evolving?

Over roughly the last three to four years, the quality of what is being built has genuinely reached a global standard. Local companies are now competing in international markets from day one.

QUOTE 13/12 WORDS 77/87 CHARS "The quality of what is being built has genuinely reached a global standard." - MURAT ABDRAKHMANOV, FOUNDER, MA7 VENTURES

Globerce

Founded as a holding company, Globerce Capital has evolved from an end-to-end IT vendor into a fintech-focused technology group. Today, about 90% of its work is with banks and financial institutions, where it digitises business processes, from retail lending and mortgages to compliance systems and back-office workflows. “We do not sell requirements; we build outcomes,” says CEO and Founder Ainur Temirkhankyzy.

The company now operates five Kazakhstan-based technology businesses and works with more than 350 developers. It has digitised more than 130 major products to date and is using that experience to expand beyond Kazakhstan into Central Asia and the UAE, where it is working with one of the country’s major banks.

Kazakhstan’s digital maturity has been a crucial proving ground. The country ranks 10th globally in e-government services, while 37% of the economy is already cashless. For 2026, the main priorities are the launch of the Globerce Platform, designed to help clients build products more independently, and advancing the company’s use of emerging technologies “AI is now embedded at the infrastructure level of how we work,” Temirkhankyzy says. “The ambition is to build Kazakhstan’s next unicorn.”

QUOTE 12/12 WORDS 64/87 CHARS “AI is now embedded at the infrastructure level of how we work.” - AINUR TEMIRKHANKYZY, CEO AND FOUNDER, GLOBERCE CAPITAL

Qazcode

A spin-off from Beeline Kazakhstan, part of VEON Group, QazCode operates as a specialised software development company, employing more than 600 people. “We want Kazakhstani software to be visible globally,” says CEO Oleksii Sharavar.

QazCode launched the KazLLM project in 2024 with partners including the Ministry of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Development, Astana Hub and the Institute of Smart Systems and AI. It is also developing applied AI products, including its flagship corporate agent Aventa, which has already attracted more than 1,700 active users in three months. The company is expanding internationally, with a pipeline spanning 70 countries.

QUOTE 8/10 WORDS 53/69 CHARS “We want Kazakhstani software to be visible globally.” - OLEKSII SHARAVAR, CEO, QAZCODE

Alaqan

Founded in 2020, Alaqan is a biometric technology company using secure palm vein scanning to enable touchless identification, payments and access. Its algorithm now processes more than 1.5 million identifications a day. “We shifted from a biometric product company to an identity layer,” says Co-CEO Ayan Ispola.

Built and tested at scale in Kazakhstan, the platform already serves around 800,000 active daily users and has completed 65 million identifications. The company is now expanding internationally, with legal entities in Abu Dhabi Global Market, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, and a strategy centred on providing the core identity infrastructure for local partners to build services.

QUOTE 11/10 WORDS 67/69 CHARS “We shifted from a biometric product company to an identity layer.” - AYAN ISPOLA,

CO-CEO, ALAQAN