Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- On 25 September, at the Digital Uzbekistan Forum, held as part of the ICT WEEK 2019, the creation of the first venture fund in the Republic of Uzbekistan was announced.

One of the main tasks and activities of IT-Park is to provide support to start-ups and small enterprises in the field of information technology in the implementation of startup projects based on venture financing.

 “No matter how we try to develop the startup ecosystem, IT projects without further funding will not be fully implemented. In this regard, we have communicated with stakeholders many times, both from the public and private sectors, and with international experts, and came to the conclusion that without the creation of a venture fund, a full-fledged dynamic development of the IT industry is impossible. Therefore, we initiated the creation of the first venture capital fund, which will complete the logical chain of development of promising startup projects,” Farkhod Ibragimov, Director of IT Park, said.

The fund will invest in venture projects in the field of information technology.

The target size of the venture fund is US$10 million and its participants will be state funds, international financial institutions, foreign investment companies and interested private investors.

The investment focus in IT startup projects covers from the pre-seed stage to the early growth stage. The average investment for each project will be from US$25,000 to US$100,000, depending on the stages of development of startup projects.

The fund's area of interest covers all sectors of the real economy, from ArgoTech, E-Gov to MedTech, E-commerce, IoT, etc. The fund will consider investment projects registered in the Republic of Uzbekistan.

In order to hedge investment risks, the venture fund will invest in IT start-up projects using the co-investment mechanism in the 1 + 1 (matching) format, that is, if there is a direct financial or corporate co-investor in the target project.

To date, IT Park Venture Fund has already established partnerships with international venture players such as QazTech Ventures (Kazakhstan), Sturgeon Capital (UK), Astron Fund Advisors (Uzbekistan), RB Partners (Russia), Aleinikov and Partners (Belarus) and Global Venture Alliance (USA).