Results of meetings Plug and Play with venture funds and companies of Uzbekistan

On July 20-25, Sascha Karimpour, Managing Director of Plug and Play Germany and Felix Lammers Corporate Partnerships Manager had a business trip to Uzbekistan. During the trip, they held a number of meetings with top management of venture funds and companies in Uzbekistan.

On July 21, Plug and Play representatives met with Abdulla Azizov Deputy Chairman of the Board for Digital Technologies of Almalyk Mining and Metallurgical Combine, Farrukh Maksumov Head of the department for the development of the IT Park Uzbekistan startup ecosystem, and Zaynab Atabaeva Project manager.

At the meeting, representatives of Plug and Play, IT Park and AMC discussed possible areas of cooperation in building a startup ecosystem in the new Plug and Play office in Uzbekistan.

On July 22, Plug and Play representatives met with Dilshod Khashimov CEO of the UzVC National Venture Fund and Alisher Shaykhov Chief consultant.

The parties exchanged views on the changes that have taken place in recent years in the direction of IT in Uzbekistan, and also considered the possible areas of cooperation in developing mechanisms to attract investment to support IT startups in Uzbekistan.

On the same day, representatives of Plug and Play visited the office of UZCARD Ventures, where they met with Managing Partner Farkhod Mukhitdinov and Head of the Corporate Innovation Department of the Uzbek Fintech Accelerator Diera Khalilova. Foreign guests discussed with Uzbek colleagues the possibility of co-investing in startups in Uzbekistan.

In addition, during the visit, representatives of Plug and Play annnounced that the opening ceremony of their office in Uzbekistan is scheduled for the autumn of this year. After the launch, the most promising startup projects will be selected and assisted in their growth by participating in acceleration programs and establishing connections with large corporations.

In addition, Sascha Karimpour and Felix Lammers held a meeting with Alijon Ravshanov, partner of Sturgeon Capital in Uzbekistan. The sides exchanged views on what positive changes the startup industry is undergoing now and why it is so important for the development of the republic. As it was noted at the meeting, the intensive development of the IT industry in Uzbekistan, which can be observed in recent years, is inextricably linked with startups.

At the end of the day, another meeting was held — with Hikmat Hidoyatov, Director of Travel Insurance and Internet Sales at Gross Insurance. As the parties noted, the introduction of IT projects in the insurance sector is still relatively new when compared with other countries, but soon this practice will become more relevant, since the importance of introducing IT technologies into the insurance business is now recognized by all interested parties.

For reference: Plug and Play is a leading innovation platform that unites startups, corporations, venture capital firms, universities and government agencies. The company is represented in over 40 locations on five continents with headquarters in Silicon Valley. Plug and Play offers corporate innovation programs and helps corporate partners at every stage of their innovation path, from training to implementation. They also organize startup accelerators and have created their own venture fund to introduce innovations in various industries, where they have invested in 1,000 successful companies, including Dropbox, Guardant Health, Honey, Lending Club, N26, PayPal and Rappi.