Central Asian Startups Go Global

Start-ups rooted in Central Asia are increasingly selling to global customers and raising significant international capital: Central Asian companies attracted a record $320 million in 2025, with Higgsfield AI and Uzbekistan’s Uzum accounting for 61% of that total. Venture investment in Kazakhstan alone rose to $209 million in 2025, up from $71 million the year before, while Uzbekistan drew $99.3 million in 2025. Alongside U.S. funds, investors from the Gulf states, China, Europe and Southeast Asia are becoming more active—Singapore-based Golden Gate Ventures announced a two-year programme in Uzbekistan for 20 founders and has opened an office in Tashkent.

"CodiPlay received only part of the announced $9 million. It declined the remainder while expecting a separate $20 million investment that never materialized," said CodiPlay founder Zhanadil Taldybayev, who described cash shortages and delayed salaries as the company refocuses on Central Asia and the Middle East and North Africa.

Context and notable deals

• Higgsfield AI, co-founded by Uzbekistan-born Alex Mashrabov and Kazakhstan’s Yerzat Dulat, is based in San Francisco and develops image and video generation tools. In August 2026 it raised $400 million in a Series B at a $5.4 billion valuation, led by DST Global with participation from Goldman Sachs Alternatives, Tribe Capital, Intel Capital and others. By that time the company had more than 30 million users and its technology was used in campaigns for 390 Fortune 500 companies.
• Uzum, Uzbekistan’s largest digital ecosystem combining e‑commerce, banking and payments, raised $65.5 million in August 2025 at a $1.5 billion valuation and secured a further $131.5 million in March 2026, taking its valuation to $2.3 billion. Investors include Tencent, VR Capital, FinSight Ventures and Omani sovereign wealth funds.
• Kazakh founders have used Silicon Valley routes: three Kazakhstan‑rooted startups—Nozomio, Leaping AI and Hillclimb—joined Y Combinator in 2025. Nozomio raised $6.2 million from CRV, BoxGroup and LocalGlobe; Leaping AI raised a $4.7 million seed and moved operations to San Francisco; Hillclimb focuses on reinforcement‑learning environments.
• Other U.S. market plays include Nace.AI, developed by Kazakh entrepreneur Bakytzhan Dos, which has raised $26.5 million (including a $21.5 million round announced in May 2026) with investors such as Walden Catalyst, General Catalyst and Jerry Yang. Ticker, founded by Alimkhan Kassymov and Aidan Giordano, won Perplexity’s Billion Dollar Build programme and received more than $500,000 in investment and AI credits.
• Expansion beyond the U.S.: Kazakh EdTech CodiPlay announced a $9 million round in January 2025 from investors in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE and reported deployment in around 1,200 schools across 13 countries by end‑2025, though the founder has acknowledged the company did not receive the full amount initially announced and is refocusing markets.
• From Tashkent, TASS Vision (Shahzod Umirzakov and Jamshidjon Khakimjonov) has deployed AI retail‑analytics systems in more than 3,000 stores across ten countries including Kazakhstan, Turkey, Georgia and Peru.

Outlook

The data point to a venture ecosystem already operating at hundreds of millions of dollars but concentrated in a handful of large transactions. Some companies—especially AI and enterprise software teams—are incorporating abroad, raising capital from U.S. investors and targeting overseas customers while keeping engineering in the region. Others, like Uzum, attract international financing to scale domestically. With new investors from the Gulf and Southeast Asia entering the market and initiatives such as Golden Gate Ventures' Tashkent programme, founders in Central Asia have multiple pathways to international growth, even as funding remains unevenly distributed across the ecosystem.