Top Stories March 6: Kazakhstan boosts science funding

UKRAINE

Ukrainian startups are raising funds from investors across markets and geographies. In recent weeks, Finmap, Deus Robotics, Harmix, Carmoola, and Kolibrio have managed to close rounds to support their expansion. [Source: Ukrainian Digital News]

Ukraine’s Ministry for Digital Transformation has launched a free online crypto literacy course. The class includes 100 hours of lessons and tasks to educate users about cryptocurrency, blockchain, smart contracts, trading, wallets and risks associated with crypto operations. [Source: Coinpost]

KAZAKHSTAN

Kazakhstan plans to increase state funding of science by 3.5 times over the next three years. The country plans to build new academic and high school infrastructure, provide access to university degrees for a wider audience and take to a modern management system of the national science. [Source: Inform.kz] 

E-commerce in Kazakhstan increased by 20.2% in 2022 compared to 2021 to $2.9 billion.The biggest hike in sales was seen in the segment of food (+28.5%) followed by healthcare products (+ 27.8%) and drinks and tobacco (+11.3%). [Source: Profit.kz]

FINTECH 

More than 600 offline vendors in Georgia, including shops, hotels, supermarkets, started to accept cryptocurrencies. This has become possible after the signing of an agreement between cryptocurrency exchange Binance and crypto payment service CityPay.io. [Source: Binance’s Twitter account]

Kazakhstan fintech service Kaspi.kz serving as an online bank and payment platform reported a 37% increase in net profit in 2022 against 2021. The growth rate was achieved through strong performance in core business segments, the expansion of customer base and the introduction of new services. [Source: BNE]

STARTUPS

Internet service Mesto na karte, or “place on a map,” which has been operating since April 2022 to help Russian startups founders, IT specialists and other digital industry professionals relocate to safe destinations, said it had suspended its activity on March 1. In its statement, the service that had been working in Bali, Cyprus, the Netherlands, Spain, Turkey, Argentine, cited “the real economics and hard operational management” as reasons for the suspension.[Source: Mesto.in]

Russian LegalTech startup Doczilla launched an artificial intelligence-based service for the preparation of documents in nearly ten foreign languages for various jurisdictions across the globe. It also allows the user to create a document’s resume and convert it in an appropriate file format. [Source: RB]

Russian startup Profilum was short-listed by prestigious BOLD Awards in the category EdTech. Profilum is a teenager-oriented big-data driven platform for professional testing and assistance in career growth. [Source: BOLD Awards]

Russia-founded investment fund FinSight Ventures invested in India-based startup Betterhalf, a marriage mobile app. FinSight Ventures’s general partner and co-founder Alexey Garyunov said in his comment to the media that Betterhalf “knows how to leverage technology to its ability in breaking the large problem and build robust solutions for scale especially full-stack tech-enabled wedding services.” [Source: Entrepreneur]

Russian delivery service Pony Express has opened an office in Thailand, one of the most popular destinations for the recent wave of Russian expats. The company plans to open the second office in the spring. [Source: New Prospect]

SANCTIONS

Russian billionaires Oleg Tinkov and Eugene Shvidler separately asked U.K. ‘s authorities to remove them from sanctions lists where they have been included after the start of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine due to their alleged ties with the Kremlin. They both claim they don’t support Russian President Vladimir Putin’s policy and are critical of it. [Source: Bloomberg]

UZBEKISTAN

International telecommunications company VEON and its Uzbekistan’s subsidiary Beeline Uzbekistan announced their intentions to further help the country in its digital transformation and human resources development in the IT industry. VEON’s top managers hope Uzbekistan will soon rise in global IT development rankings, which will lead to more investments in the local IT sector. [Source: Gazeta.kz] 

Only 30% of 5,000 functions of Uzbekistan’s government are digitized and accessible online, the fact that drew criticism from the country’s president Shavkat Mirzoyeyv. Head of the state ordered to accelerate the digitization of various aspects of Uzbekistan’s life, emphasizing the country’s target to increase IT services exports to $1 billion per year. [Source: Gazeta.kz]

YANDEX

Russian Internet giant Yandex plans to launch Interface Design School (iOs, Android, Flutter), Backend Development School (Python, Jaza, Go, C++), Mobile App Development School, and Management School for juniors in Russia, Kazakhstan, and Serbia this summer. While tuition is free, there is a competitive admissions process, after which the best graduates will receive internship or job offers from the company.  [Source: Yandex]

New Israel-based startup Nebius is allegedly linked to Yandex, which is reported to be divided in two parts to be able to continue its international operations despite Western sanctions. Nebius uses Yandex’s cloud service Yandex.Cloud and hired former Yandex’s top-managers, in addition to other signs hinting at its links with Yandex. [Source: VC.ru]