Ташкент, Узбекистан (UzDaily.uz) – Seedstars World, the largest seed-stage startup competition for emerging markets and fast-growing startup scenes, brought its Uzbekistan round to a successful close during Seedstars Tashkent. The event took place this Sunday, at GroundZero, and 12 selected startups were invited to present their companies in front of the local jury panel.

The local winner, ArzonApteka, the service that helps to find medicines at the lowest price,  was named “Best Startup in Uzbekistan” for its innovative sustainable solution. “It was the first time when we participated with ArzonApteka project in the Seedstars World Competition. We know that this is the largest international competition for emerging markets and felt a huge responsibility. We are so much pleased to become members of the Seedstars family. The victory in the local competition gave us confidence that we were on the right way. We really needed this support from international experts. Our project aims to digitalize the entire healthcare and pharmaceutical industry in Uzbekistan. Today, we are the leaders in the field of pharmacy software, as well as the largest online reference (help desk) pharmacy. Our aim is to build a chain of trust from manufacturers of medicines to the final consumer. Our projects are easily scalable to other markets”, explains Nigora Akilova, CMO at  ArzonApteka.

As a part of the prize, ArzonApteka will be participating at the Seedstars Summit CEE in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan in November and get a chance to go to the Seedstars Seedstars Summit, which takes place in Switzerland, in April 2020. During this week-long event week-long event, they get the opportunity to meet 65+ winners from other fast growing economies, as well as investors and mentors from around the world. The final day of the Summit is dedicated to pitching in front of an audience of more than 1000 attendees, with the possibility of winning up to USD 500,000 in equity investment and other prizes.

The 12 startups pitched in front of a prestigious jury, including Sherzod Ashurov (Astron VC, CFO), Evgeniy Lukyanchikov (Yandex, Country manager Yandex.Uzbekistan), Agahuseyn Ahmadov (Seedstars, Regional Manager for CEE & Central Asia) and Abdulahad Kuchkarov (IT Park Uzbekistan, Deputy Director), who said “We are proud to have Seedstars World Competition happening in Tashkent for the second time! This year the level of startups was much higher.  The event was well organized by Seedstars team with local mentors. This year IT-Park became the partner of Seedstars Tashkent event. We are looking forward to fruitful collaboration with Seedstars in the future!”.

Green White Solutions LLC, with its ERP system for automation of production and distribution companies came second and Maktron, with its website for watching video tutorials and taking tests for material revision and self-testing grabbed the last spot in the top 3. The other startups invited to pitch were Bagit, Bankmarket, DataLab LLC, Delivera, Slash Dash LLC, BILLZ, Sales Doctor Solutions, OX Group and DIGID LLC.

The event was organized with the help of Seedstars local partner GroundZero. Embassy of Switzerland in Uzbekistan is the main sponsor of the event. Further support was provided by AMBiT, Uzbekistan Youth Union, Yosh Tadbirkor, IT Park and other community and media partners.

After this stop at Tashkent Agahuseyn Ahmadov, Regional Manager for CEE at Seedstars, says “We are extremely happy that we met that many promising startups in Uzbekistan and can’t wait to hear their success stories in the near future. We are very excited to come back to Tashkent next year!”