«Fort Ross Ventures»(USA) venture fund is interested in investments in Uzbek startups

On this year’s November 9, under the leadership of the Venture Investment Association of Uzbekistan, a meeting was held between IT Park resident companies, representatives of Uzbek startups, heads of venture funds and an honored guest of Uzbekistan, experts in the field of venture capital, founder and general partner of the “Fort Ross Ventures” venture fund  (USA) Viktor Orlovsky.

Victor Orlovsky was born and grown up in Tashkent, in distinct times worked in such international companies as ABN AMRO Bank, «Alfa Bank», IBM and Sberbank, and since 2015 has been living in the United States.  Currently, he is the founder and general partner of the US venture fund «Fort Ross Ventures», whose total liabilities are $ 345 million.

During the seminar, the situation of the start-up market in Uzbekistan and its prospects, the state of regulatory mechanisms in this area in our country, as well as the most promising directions for the development of Uzbek start-ups for subsequent entry into the international arena were considered.  Additionally, Orlovsky outlined the key points of building an ecosystem for breakthrough innovations in Uzbekistan and spoke about his passion to enter this market.

Particularly, promising local startups from IT Park resident companies, including «Multicard» and «Micros24» (Multibank), were presented, after which Viktor Orlovsky presented his book «From a rhino to a unicorn.  How to manage corporations in the era of digital transformation».

The speaker of the event noted that «Fort Ross Ventures» is interested in investing in Uzbek startups a step earlier, bringing them to the international market, including the United States.  Orlovsky’s main aim with regard to Uzbek startups is to build at least one large company that would provide its IT products and services to the whole world with a total turnover of $ 1 billion!  This company will become a launching pad for dozens of other promising projects.

He also outlined the possible areas of his activities in the country, in addition to venture investment:

“I really want to import investments into Uzbekistan not only in business , but also in education.  Investing  your own money, to help create the main foundation of a tech economy – highly educated workforce.  After all, 30 million people live in Uzbekistan – they need to be given as many opportunities to study as possible, and then the country will be able to make a fantastic leap forward“.

The importance of education and experience, including when creating startups, was also noted by Dilshod Zufarov, CEO of the Association:

“One of the main problems of our startups is the lack of experience and education and, as a result, the fight against the phantom“ pain ”of the market.  The average age of startup founders in Uzbekistan is 25.  It is obvious that many of them are lacking the knowledge.  Many people, not even having time to work somewhere, immediately go to open their project.  At the same time, investors either do not believe in these ideas and are not ready to take risks for them, or aspiring start-up founders still receive funding, but then face the fact that they simply cannot implement many of their ideas“.

In its turn, Ulugbek Mirzamukhamedov, co-founder and investor of Semurg VC, emphasized not only the issue of personnel training, but also the readiness of investors:

“There are talented youth in Uzbekistan, a lot of ideas, we have always been a kind of economic and cultural locomotive in the region.  Therefore, we should have many more projects than we have now.  But so far there is a lack of consistency, a competent approach to creating startups and faith in their success on the part of investors.  So now many of our truly outstanding startups are looking for overseas support.  If we can get them the help they need here, the startup market in Uzbekistan will skyrocket.  And venture investments of a completely different order will go to the country”.

Holding such events allows heads of IT companies to exchange experience, attract investments and make their projects recognizable among representatives of foreign venture capitalists, which significantly increases the potential and opportunities of local startups to break through to international markets.