Astana Hub International Technopark of IT startups presented the results of its activities
Astana Hub International Technopark of IT startups presented the results of its activities for three years at a press briefing at the Central Communications Service.
On November 6, the capital’s technopark turned 3 years old. The mission of Astana Hub is to develop a startup culture and support digital innovation to strengthen the economy of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
“At the moment, 574 companies are participants in Astana Hub, their total revenue amounted to 166 billion tenge, and the volume of attracted financing is 56.5 billion tenge. There are 54 companies with foreign participation registered in the technopark, and the number of foreign workers among the technopark participants is 184 people. For the development of the IT community, more than 1000 events were held, in which 55,000 listeners took part, ”- said General Director Magzhan Madiev.
Technopark participants receive tax incentives. Preferences exempt them from paying taxes such as CIT, VAT, VAT on imports of goods, royalty tax, personal income tax and social tax for non-residents. This measure of state support allows IT companies to reinvest the savings in the development of their projects. “So for three years, the tax savings for the technopark participants amounted to 14.9 billion tenge,” said Magzhan Madiev, General Director of Astana Hub.
Alem programming school also operates on the territory of the technopark. Now more than 200 people study at the school. “These are very talented, motivated students, some of them have already found jobs in international IT companies thanks to the skills they acquired in alem. For example, Adilbek Tursynbek is the youngest student of Alem, he is 17 years old. He graduated from high school this year and is already working remotely as a developer at Microsoft. And there are a lot of such talented, breakthrough students at Alem, ”-said Dagar Davletov, Chairman of the Board of Alem Programming School.
Also, Astana Hub, with the support of the Ministry of Digital Development, Innovation and Aerospace Industry of the Republic of Kazakhstan, is currently implementing the Tech Orda program.
The program provides an opportunity for Kazakhstanis to receive funding for training in IT specialties in the amount of 600,000 tenge. In 2021, the program was launched for the first time and will provide 100 Kazakhstanis with a quota for education in leading programming schools. 13 IT schools throughout Kazakhstan (Nur-Sultan, Shymkent, Almaty, Karaganda, Uralsk, Semey, Aktau) take part in the program.
In general, in the next five years within the framework of the program, by 2025 it is planned to issue more than 20,000 grants for training IT specialists in the best programming schools throughout Kazakhstan.
“By the end of this year, 100 students across the country will start training in IT specialties at the expense of the state. Already next year, the number of quotas will be increased to 2000, and by 2025, thanks to the Tech Orda program, we plan to train up to 20,000 IT-personnel, ”Magzhan Madiev said.
In addition to educational programs, the technopark also implements business programs that accelerate the development of startups and increase their chances of success. “For example, we put startups at an early stage in an incubator, which has already been completed by 849 projects. The best ones go to the accelerator. In total, 9 acceleration streams have already passed since 2018, the total number of graduates amounted to 232 startups. At the next stage, community members get access to support in the form of tax preferences, ”explained Magzhan Madiev.
The ApartX young IT-company , which is a member of the international technopark, also shared its successes at the briefing.
ApartX service is a mobile application for owners of daily rental real estate. The application allows you to remotely and safely control objects using smart locks. Today, the project team employs 12 people and the startup is represented in 7 cities, they are Nur-Sultan, Almaty, Shymkent, Pavlodar, Aktobe, Kokshetau and Moscow. The company is actively working to bring its product for export to different countries. “In six months, 100 apartments have been connected to our system, more than 9000 reservations have passed through our platform. We are launched in Kazakhstan and Russia, in Nur-Sultan, Almaty and Moscow. We launched integration with a local rental site and have pre-orders for $ 100,000. Every dollar spent brings us $ 6. We have entered into an exclusive contract with the manufacturer of the smart lock at the lowest price. During the pandemic, our solution has shown its effectiveness in renting apartments in order to prevent infection with Covid-19, ”said Kanat Keldibekov, the founder of ApartX .