The AIFC Tech Hub held an official presentation of the guide “VC Guide for Founders” in partnership with KPMG and SkyBridge Invest. The global venture capital fund MyVentures has become the corporate partner of the official presentation of the guide.
The purpose of the guide is to provide a clear understanding of the opportunities and advantages of the Astana International Financial Center (AIFC) for structuring venture transactions and attracting investments. The guide was based on interviews with the founders of Kazakhstan startups and business angels.
At the event, the speakers discussed the ecosystem of venture capital industry, talked about the benefits of structuring venture deals within the AIFC, and shared their personal experience of creating startups in Central Asia.
Nazgul Baitemirova, an expert on structuring of the VC Support AIFC Tech Hub department, commented: "Due to principles of freedom of contract and flexibility of jurisdiction, the AIFC allows using such traditional venture capital instruments, which are already widely used in the Western world. For example, the possibility of structuring transactions through debt instruments as convertible loan, and conditional debt instruments SAFE and KISS".
Sholpan Ainabayeva, the managing director at SkyBridge Invest, told: "On the basis of the AIFC conditions are created for the correct and competent release of financial instruments within the framework ESG, structures are created that allow for conduct correct verification and correct positioning of financial instruments that are issued under these principles."
Inna Alkhimova, partner, Head of Tax and Legal KPMG in Central Asia, said: "Until recently, popular holding jurisdictions were the Netherlands, Singapore, Luxembourg and Cyprus. Recently, we have seen increased interest to the AIFC site due to a few factors: English law, a variety of legal forms that are available for registration, low maintenance costs and a favorable tax regime for investors, as for Kazakhstani, and for foreign".
Alexey Girin, the General Partner at Starta Capital noted: "In Kazakhstan we are registering a subsidiary company Starta Capital. You had a gut feeling with the formation of the AIFC with English jurisdiction. I think you have found your moment. Many startups in our ecosystem are asking about Kazakhstan, some of the teams from the portfolio companies have been relocating to Kazakhstan in the last month and a half.
Konstantin Sinyushin, the Untitled Venture Company Managing Partner, added: "Kazakhstan has an absolutely fantastic thing that cannot be found in those countries where the exodus took place, and not even in continental Europe, except Cyprus. We are talking about the AIFC with structuring of the companies by the English law. It is a fantastic achievement".
Shakhboz Rakhmanov, General Partner at MyVentures, said that the experience of investing in Central Asian projects has shown that the market is ready to create positive-disruptive products. "In the current conditions, the AIFC with the jurisdiction based on the principles of English common law has become a big trump card for the projects", Rakhmanov noted. According to Rakhmanov, "Our fund is at the pre-seed/seed stage, so we are looking at startups at those same stages. We are focused mainly on the market of Kazakhstan and Central Asia.
The speakers of the event were also an angel investor, technology entrepreneur Murat Abdrakhmanov, Investment Director of Quest Ventures Ruslan Rakymbay, BILLZ founder Rustam Khamdamov, CEO of Cerebra.ai Ltd. Doszhan Zhusupov and many others.
