AI’preneurs 2025

“In the second cohort of AI’preneurs, we selected 54 AI talents out of 360 applications, and they created 13 startups. This cohort surpassed the first one and set new standards for AI startups — the program has proven its effectiveness by giving participants access to the experience of trackers, experts and resources to quickly turn ideas into products and enter the market. We want to attract even more IT talent and take their projects to the global level,” said Magzhan Madiyev, CEO of Astana Hub.

It is worth noting that at the first stage the participants formed 20 teams, 13 of which successfully completed the acceleration and built their own startups from scratch, demonstrating strong MVPs. The second cohort presented the following at Demo Day 2025: CoFounder AI - an ecosystem of AI agents that finds clients and scales a business on autopilot; STIKER.AI - helps tax consultants and freelance experts automate routine work: collecting documents, reminders and payments via WhatsApp, without a CRM or complex setup; TabiLens - a next-generation AI platform for tourism marketing; OYS - a system that onboards sales managers in 1 day, increases conversion and provides full analytics; Botable.dev – an idea to simplify the creation and implementation of AI solutions in business; SolidRock - an engineering AI solution for translating, localizing and integrating video games; Yer AI - an AI platform for exam preparation for admission to top universities; ATeam - an HR platform for automating employee development and performance management through analytics and individual growth plans; Omir AI - a medical startup that processes test data and then provides individual recommendations; NIGIN - a platform of AI agents that build a clear AI roadmap for businesses and guaranteed profit growth; U-Drone - an autonomous system for recording road accidents using drones and artificial intelligence that creates accurate 3D models of accident scenes in minutes; Ping! - a customer service ecosystem for retail; GoStratify - a platform that makes corporate data structured and AI-ready.

Among the innovative startups presented at Demo Day at Astana Hub was the U-Drone project. The startup offers a technological solution designed to relieve city roads using drones and 3D modeling.

“I have been working in urban planning for more than 10 years. The AI’preneurs program from Astana Hub opened up a new world for me — the world of IT. The idea for U-Drone came from realizing how seriously road accidents affect urban mobility. Today all processes are carried out manually, but our ultimate goal is to build a fully autonomous system: the drone takes off on its own, records the situation and returns to base without human involvement,” shared U-Drone founder, architect Yerkanat Zaitov.

The participants went through the entire acceleration journey in an intensive format with constant expert support. The lead AI’preneurs trackers, Yevgeny Frolov and Nikolai Tyan, provided support at every stage: from working through hypotheses to preparing for market entry. Regular board meetings, reviews of mistakes and progress tracking became important elements of the teams’ transformation.

The program attracted huge interest among IT entrepreneurs, engineers and specialists from different countries. Since its launch in 2024, AI’preneurs has received 612 applications from Kazakhstan and neighboring countries. AI’preneurs is not about ideas, it is about results. Startups from the first cohort have already raised more than $350,000 in investment and continue to grow. The program gives participants access to mentoring, Astana Hub infrastructure, international contacts and the resources needed for a confident start. AI’preneurs will continue to open up new opportunities for the development and scaling of AI startups.

For reference:

AI’preneurs is the flagship acceleration program of Astana Hub, launched in 2024. It is the first platform in Kazakhstan created specifically for launching startups in the field of artificial intelligence. The program brings together specialists from various fields — from machine learning and software engineering to marketing and product management. In three months, participants go from an idea and team formation to bringing a product to market.

Demo Day AI’preneurs is the final event at which participants present their projects to investors, venture funds and business representatives.