Through Bankruptcy to Creation of Own Holding Company. The Path of Kazakhstani Startups

In the world of information technology, the path from an idea to a viable startup is long and expensive. The more so is the path from a startup to a successfully functioning company. According to Aidar Myrzakhmetov, head of Technowize Holding, it is possible to take a shortcut and enter the global market directly - all it takes is the right strategy. Aidar is the author and co-author of IT solutions which automate the processes of big data analysis and monitoring to ensure transparent activity of government agencies. One of his projects, called OHML, involves implementation of the Horizontal Monitoring Platform IT program. It helps to make tax regulation and tax administration in Kazakhstan more transparent. Another project is Center for Procurement Monitoring and Analysis, which currently analyzes procurement activities worth more than $15 billion.

Aidar, tell us how did you choose to go with such a complex IT domain?

- I think my experience and the challenges that I personally faced in my work helped me a lot. After graduating from KIMEP, I got a job at Deloitte, an international auditing company, where I spent two years. I realized that dealing with figures and documents manually is not my thing. I received an offer from a Kazakhstani IT company, where I worked as Business Development Manager, showed good results, and was subsequently invited to Ernst&Young. Here we dealt with IT audit, IT strategies development for large companies, and everything related to IT consulting. At that time PricewaterhouseCoopers noticed our achievements and headhunted the whole team. By that time I was already heading my own team in IT-consulting, as I saw a tremendous potential in this sphere. The IT market was growing dynamically, not keeping up with the demand for expertise, there was a lack of knowledge and specialists. My mission was to provide the startups and IT companies with an Action Plan, to guide and foster their development both in Kazakhstan and beyond.

How did you pave the way to big contracts as an entrepreneur?

- In 2015, I realized that it was time to create my own startup. I founded a company that focused on creating its own IT products. It was my first experience in entrepreneurship, and we made a lot of mistakes, so we went bankrupt. After the failure, I became a freelance consultant helping to improve business processes in large organizations. Having gained a good experience over 10 years in IT consulting in all aspects: as a businessman, as a freelancer, as a consultant, and as a salaried employee, I found my own niche. In 2019, I started a company called Technowize. We developed Enterprise Service Buses (EBS) for billing systems and had contracts with ATM providers Kassa24, Astana-Plat and others. Previously, one would pay, for example, for utilities through an ATM and had to wait a long time to receive confirmation of crediting; now, thanks to EBS, the process was automated, and the information was immediately recorded in the system for both the client and the service provider.

So you create products that automate the processes?

- Not only that. Since 2019, Technowize has grown from a small business into a holding company that has four projects under its umbrella. The largest project of our holding, and probably the most significant one for the country, is OHML - a unique project in Kazakhstan to implement horizontal monitoring. In simple terms, the company helps to make the system of tax deductions in the country more transparent. Often people make mistakes in calculations, documentation, while our system eliminates the human factor and the risk of huge fines gets reduced.

Another project of our holding is the Center for Procurement Monitoring and Analysis. This is a cloud-based solution for employees of the Internal State Audit Committee of the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Kazakhstan, who identify violations in the public procurement system. They used to do it manually, but now it is the system that performs this time-consuming process for them. This is how it works: a hospital in Kostanay announced a tender for wall painting. The procurement was made from a single source, not through the competitive bidding process, and the winner only presented a copyright certificate, while the painting works are not subject to copyright in principle. It means that the supplier wanted to cheat and bypass the competitive bidding procedures. This is a violation and a reason to cancel the results of the procurement. If the Committee's employees identify a corruption component, the information is sent to the law enforcement authorities.

In addition to these two companies, our holding includes a company that automates the processes in the logistics sector, as well as an online programming school without a teacher. The school also operates under the MDDIAI government grants program, which plans to train 20K IT specialists by 2025.

You suggested that Kazakhstani startups can follow not only the classical path of development within Kazakhstan, but also enter the international market. What exactly did you mean by that?

One should invest in strategy. With proper planning, a Kazakhstani project has every chance to not just grow into a successful company very quickly, but also to enter the international arena. This is exactly what I plan to do in the near future: to enter the US market and help my compatriots do the same. I plan to establish a special management company, which will have two venture funds in its portfolio – one in Kazakhstan and one in the USA. The first fund will help Kazakhstani startups develop in Silicon Valley, as well as attract foreign investments in Kazakhstan projects. In this regard, our specialists have huge advantages, which need to be channeled in the right direction and to properly plan further steps. And the second fund will operate in the USA and will be engaged in investments in international and American startups.