Oriented on making people closer

In Ashgabat, in the conference hall of the Yyldyz Hotel, a venture investment forum was held, organized by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) with the assistance of the joint-stock commercial bank "Rysgal".

For reference: venture capital is a form of financing provided by high—risk investors to companies that are in the early stages of development, but have high growth potential.

Experts and market leaders reviewed new forms of venture transformation in Turkmenistan, which are to be implemented for the implementation of local startups.

USAID representative in Turkmenistan Nino Nadiradze noted the importance of finding new directions for innovative development, involving promising startup projects in this process through support of their initiatives.

Which companies are most suitable for the concept of venture innovations in Turkmenistan?

ORIENT's correspondent addressed this question to Max Gurvitz, a Dutch entrepreneur, investor, startup mentor, founder of the CCC Startups venture fund and the Startup AddVenture project.

— High-growth projects are most suitable for venture capital, this is almost any digital business, for example, a platform for trading and providing services on the Internet: delivery, supply, as well as financial technologies and logistics. I think the last two areas will acquire the greatest opportunities for venture development in Turkmenistan.

In his speech at the forum, Max Hurwitz told the audience about the history of venture investments, successful practices of using this mechanism. He explained the various models of innovation implementation and the main components of their financing.

Kerim Sylapov, a representative of the Rysgal Bank, spoke about the bank's activities, noting that more than 3,000 private sector individuals are served in it on an ongoing basis. He also noted that Turkmenistan has a good base for the development of investment activities.

The head of the USAID/FGI project, Philip Stoyanovich, in his speech focused on the potential of venture capital markets in Central Asia, the target indicator of the project of the Agency for the Development of Entrepreneurship and the Business Environment. He introduced the participants to the key elements of the ecosystem for startups in Central Asian countries.

During the event, experts touched upon the issues of creating models and mechanisms of interaction, activation of the state side and private investors.

In addition, the participants discussed topics related to the implementation of startups, including corporate innovations, commercialization and support of innovative projects.

After what period will financial projects of this type begin to pay off?

— Such projects begin to serve customers very quickly, literally in months. Speaking of financial payback, it is necessary to take into account the necessary time to make projects financially stable. This happens in about a year, depending on the complexity, sometimes two," Max Hurwitz answered this question in an interview with ORIENT. — After that, some more time passes, and the project becomes interesting in order for someone to buy it. For the creators of the company, the project participants — one to two years, and for investors – it's probably a little more — five years.

Artur PETROSYANTS

Photo: author