Tim Draper invests over $1mln in Kazakhstan's Citix startup
One of the world's major venture capitalists Tim Draper, known for his successful investments in Skype, Tesla and SpaceX, injected more than $1 million in Kazakhstan’s Citix startup, Minister of Digital Development, Innovations and Aerospace Industry Bagdat Mussin said addressing the Digital Almaty Forum, Kazinform News Agency reports.
In his words, Digital Almaty serves as a unique platform bringing together the representatives of business, international experts and IT community. The ideas generated at this forum are turned into reality.
The establishment of the Silk Road Innovation Hub in the Silicon Valley in 2023 can be a bright example. The hub has turned into a point of attraction of new startup projects and unified the efforts of our region towards expansion of the scope of digital solutions' application. This is the place where startuppers have a chance to present their ideas and find investors, he said.
According to him, the projects of the Silkroad Innovation Hub residents enjoy a high demand both at the domestic and global markets.
For instance, the world’s largest venture capitalist Tim Draper has recently invested more than $1 million into Kazakhstan’s Citix startup. This proves again that we together can create such conditions for our startup runners, to enable them to propel to the export markets and conquer the global IT industry, Mussin added.
He said that the Head of State assigned his ministry and the Government of Kazakhstan with a task to raise the volume of IT exports up to $1 billion to 2026 and make Kazakhstan one of the leading digital centers of the region.
All our initiatives including joint programs with Google for Startups and Draper University, support of the launch of the Silkroad Innovation hub, holding Digital Bridge and Digital Almaty forums, serve as the tools for the achievement of this goal.
Last October, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev met with Tim Draper, co-founder of Draper Fisher Jurvetson and founder of the Draper University. The sides discussed the issues of development of venture capital and startup industry, as well as plans and promising areas of further cooperation.
