Caucasus Ventures

🇺🇿🇦🇿🇹🇷 Over the past weeks, the Caucasus Ventures team has been on the road from ICT Week Uzbekistan in Tashkent to INMerge Innovation Summit in Baku and the final destination, Istanbul Slush'D, connecting with ecosystem players and promising founders of this geography. Each stop brought unique energy: ✨ At ICT Week, we explored Central Asia’s growing tech landscape and joined dynamic panel discussions on the future of venture and regional collaboration. ✨ At InMerge (Baku), we engaged in forward-looking panel discussions and highlighted the growing role of Azerbaijan in the regional innovation landscape. Moreover, we also had a chance to get together with our portfolio companies and explored how we can contribute further to their journeys. ✨ At Istanbul Slush'd , we enjoyed interesting panel discussions and networking and also met with new strategic partners for the expansion of our portfolio companies. These gatherings aren’t just conferences for us, they are touchpoints to strengthen bridges across the Caucasus, Central Asia, Türkiye, and CEE while amplifying the voices of founders who are building globally relevant companies from our region. 🤝 A huge thank you to the organizers, partners, and everyone who shared insights and inspiration with us along the way. We return energized to keep building and backing the next wave of bold entrepreneurs.

🔥 From Y Combinator to building a global platform: Vusal Dadalov & Iomete What does it take to turn a startup idea into a world-class Platform-as-a-Service company? In this episode of Founders Talks, we sat down with Vusal Dadalov, founder of Iomete and a Y Combinator alumnus, to unpack his journey. We shot this episode in Azerbaijani with the hopes of reaching to more azerbaijani audience. 🎙️ We covered: ✨ Lessons learned from the Y Combinator experience – challenges & opportunities ✨ The story of building Iomete and scaling it into a successful global platform ✨ Founder mindset, product-market fit, and the rollercoaster of the startup journey ✨ How Azerbaijani founders can compete — and win — on the international stage This is more than a founder’s story. It’s about vision, resilience, and proving that big ideas from our region can go global. 🌍🚀 📹 Watch the full conversation here: https://lnkd.in/eJG2Najs

🚀 David vs. Goliath? More like Replenit vs. Giants. And guess what? They’re winning. 💥 In our latest Founders Talks podcast, we sit down with Ilyas who shared the story of Replenit — the company that’s not just competing in the global market but delivering jaw-dropping results: 👉 Up to 33x ROI for their clients. 👉 Tech that turns “impossible” into “scalable.” 👉 A mindset that proves size doesn’t matter — execution does. This episode is about more than beating giants. It’s about how vision, resilience, and relentless innovation can transform entire industries. 🌍⚡ 🎧 Tune in if you want to know: • How Replenit is rewriting the rules of the game • What it really takes to outpace the biggest players • Why their story is just getting started 💡 Giants beware. The underdog just got teeth. 🔗 https://lnkd.in/eQzsxMAM Cenk Alp Caner Ömer

🌍 Next stop: INMerge Innovation Summit 2025 🚀 We’re excited to share that Caucasus Ventures will once again be part of InMerge — and this year marks our third time joining the region’s biggest innovation and tech gathering! What makes it even more special? We won’t be there alone. Some of our incredible portfolio companies will be right beside us, showcasing how founders from the Caucasus, Central Asia, and beyond are building the future. 💡 For us, InMerge has become more than just a conference — it’s where new ideas spark, founders connect, and the regional ecosystem shows its best side. And yes… it’s also where we’ve made a tradition of bringing big energy and even bigger dreams. ⚡ 👋 Come say hi, meet our team, and let’s talk startups, venture, and everything in between.

This time, we sat down with Miras Sovetov, founder of JobEscape, a platform helping talent from our region land global opportunities and thrive in the future of work. 🌍💼 We talked about: ✨ How Jobescape started and scaled beyond borders ✨ The real challenges of building a startup from Central Asia ✨ Lessons every founder can take from his journey Miras’ story is one of grit, vision, and proving that world-class startups can come from anywhere. 🔗 Watch the full episode here: https://lnkd.in/eYBPJASG

What if charging your EV was as easy as charging your phone? 📱⚡️ We just dropped a fresh episode of our Founders Talks podcast—this time with Fidan Javadova co-founder of BeWorks Automation - the startup making EV charging smarter, more accessible, and (dare we say) cooler. 🔌✨ From fixing the pain points of today’s charging infrastructure to setting new industry standards, Beworks is showing us what the future of mobility really looks like. Think less “waiting forever for your car to charge” ⏳ and more “smooth, reliable, accessible EV charging everywhere.” 🌍 🎙️ Tune in https://lnkd.in/e6-Yy_VM to hear the full story — trust us, you’ll look at charging stations differently after this one.

🚀 From Idea to $1.5M Raise – The Story of Shakhzod Umirzakov 🇺🇿 We’re back with another episode of Caucasus Ventures’ Founders Talk – our podcast series where we dive into the journeys of bold founders from our portfolio and beyond. This time, we sat down with Shakhzod Umirzakov, co-founder of TASS Vision who recently closed a $1.5M round to take his vision to the next level. We talked about: 🎯 The mindset behind raising in today’s market 🌍 Building a startup from our region for a global audience 💡 Lessons from navigating investor conversations and scaling fast If you’re a founder, aspiring entrepreneur, or just curious about how big ideas get funded, this episode is packed with insights you won’t want to miss. 🎧 Listen to the full episode here: https://lnkd.in/eVGG4jwf

After much delay, we’ve finally launched our long-awaited podcast series! 🎙️ Founder Talks will feature conversations with Caucasus Ventures’ portfolio founders, diving deep into their stories, challenges, and lessons learned along the way. For our very first episode, we hosted Glacies Biome founders – Nihat, Sarkhan, and Evan. It was an inspiring and insightful discussion, and we highly recommend watching the full conversation via the link below: https://lnkd.in/eGJeKTpK Stay tuned for more, and don’t forget to share your thoughts in the comments!

🎉 Big news from our portfolio! 🇺🇿 We’re thrilled to share that TASS Vision has successfully raised $1.5M to empower offline retail with smarter, data-driven decisions at scale. At Caucasus Ventures, we’ve been early believers in TASS Vision — and it’s deeply rewarding to see our conviction validated by this major milestone. The round was led by Purple Ventures (EU) and joined by a strong lineup of regional and international backers: DOMiNO Ventures, UzVC, SABAH.fund, Pragmatech, IT Park Ventures, Big Sky Capital VC — and of course, us. TASS Vision also becomes the first startup from Uzbekistan to raise funding from a European VC — a landmark achievement for the local ecosystem. We'll continue to support our region's founders from the very early beginning of their journey. Congrats to the entire TASS Vision team — and welcome to all the new investors joining the journey! 🚀

🇺🇸 Last week, Caucasus Ventures had an inspiring and insightful trip to the Bay Area — one of the world’s leading innovation hubs. We kicked off the visit at University of California, Berkeley, where we joined the Innovation and Academy panel to discuss the evolving role of academia in driving innovation and the unique fundraising challenges faced by emerging markets. We then attended ICPC - International Collegiate Programming Contest, where we had the chance to meet Adam D'Angelo, founder of Quora, who shared his encouraging views on Azerbaijan and the broader regional potential of the Caucasus and Central Asia. https://shorturl.at/jExXZ At the AI for Good Summit hosted at Stanford University, we explored the ethical and security dimensions of artificial intelligence — a critical topic as frontier technologies increasingly shape our future. The trip also gave us the opportunity to reconnect with our portfolio companies based in the Bay Area and meet members of the Azerbaijani tech community living and building there. 🌍 The global conversation on innovation is increasingly interconnected, and we’re proud to be building bridges for our region.