AdPut your brand at the heart of Central Asia's startup scene.Pivot is read by the region's founders, investors and executives.Advertise with usNot what happened — what it means
What it meansDuring a startup’s fundraising journey, founders must navigate two critical financial and legal concepts: the valuation of the company and the Capitalization Table (Cap Table). Misunderstanding these concepts or mismanaging equity allocation can lead to founde
Timur Saidov·1 min readWhat it meansAs startups evolve from an initial concept into global giants, they progress through a multi-tiered funding chain. Each investment stage aligns with specific objectives, risk profiles, and product readiness levels. In this guide, we break down all major stages
Sardor Alimov·1 min readWhat it meansGoogle’s Project Suncatcher is testing whether AI computing infrastructure can operate in space, using solar-powered satellites equipped with Google’s TPU chips.
Kamola Nazarova·1 min readEvery story, as it lands
Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and the United Arab Emirates have signed a memorandum to explore the feasibility of a railway corridor connecting Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan with Pakistani ports through Afghanistan. The project could provide landlocked Central Asian coun
Kazakhstan-based investment company Dasco Capital and Qazaqstan Investment Corporation (QIC) have signed a strategic cooperation agreement for the $50 million Tolqyn AI Venture Fund, which will focus on artificial intelligence, digital technologies, and creati
Kyrgyzstan has launched its first national satellite into orbit, marking the country’s first step into space-based Earth observation. The 5-kilogram nanosatellite was launched from California’s Vandenberg Space Force Base aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on Oct
Microsoft has made Azure Container Apps Express and Container Apps Sandboxes generally available. The new infrastructure provides AI agents with fast, isolated execution environments that can scale to zero when idle and restart in less than a second.
The submarine fiber-optic internet cable connecting Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan via the Caspian Sea is nearing completion. The project is expected to create a high-capacity digital link between Europe and Asia. Earlier, we reported that Kazakhstan had launched a
Tajikistan has proposed a “Single Digital Trade Footprint” concept aimed at digitalizing cross-border trade across Central Asia. Its core principle is straightforward: 1 order → 1 e-invoice → 1 digital footprint. The concept was discussed on September 28 in Du
TechRadar has rounded up the best new gadgets tested in October. The DJI Osmo 360 II, Garmin Fenix 9 Pro and Apple iPhone 18 Pro were among the devices to receive a 5/5 rating from its reviewers.
Microsoft announced leadership changes across LinkedIn and Microsoft 365 on October 1. Ryan Roslansky, who has led LinkedIn since 2020, will leave Microsoft at the end of 2026. He will remain through the end of the year as an adviser to Microsoft CEO Satya Nad
The defining characteristic that distinguishes a startup from a traditional business is scalability. Scalability is the capacity to grow revenue exponentially while incurring only incremental operational costs. 1. The risk of premature scaling According to res
In medicine, “post-mortem” refers to an autopsy conducted to determine the cause of death. In startup culture, a post-mortem is a blameless evaluation performed after a project failure or crisis to understand what went wrong and prevent recurrence. 1. 5 Steps
Every disclosed deal since 2022, fund-by-fund deployment, valuation benchmarks by stage — and the exits question nobody can answer yet.
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Experience, cases and mistakes, first-person
We started with 40 trucks and a spreadsheet. Every load came from a chat; every price was negotiated by phone. The first 'platform' was a Google Form. What actually moved the margin was not the app but a corridor-density rule: we only take loads where we can guarantee a return trip within 48 hours.
Show full postPaid ads brought sellers who never listed a product. Bazaar visits brought sellers who listed everything. The thing that finally worked was boring: a weekly phone call from a real person for the first month, and a 'trust score' visible to buyers.
Show full postNot the TAM slide. I look for one number the founder knows by heart, one customer they can name, and whether they say 'we tested' or 'we think'. Most decks in Tashkent are strong on vision and silent on the last 30 days.
Show full postThe first three were brilliant and left within a year. The next seven were curious generalists we trained ourselves — six are still here. The interview that predicted it best: a messy real task, and watching which questions they ask.
Show full post
Marketplace built on seller trust mechanics; opening Kazakhstan in early 2027.
Digital freight platform with 4,000 verified carriers on the Silk Road corridor.
Uzbek–Arabic NLP for banking compliance; first GCC enterprise contract signed in September.
Independent solar developer; won the 120 MW Navoi tender against two international bidders.
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