Kazakhstan business-angels club to invest $1 million in startups

An informal business-angels club has been launched in Kazakhstan. It is ready to select startups to investment in, Tengrinews.kz reports citing Atameken Startup Fund. “An informal business-angels club has been launched. Its first member, an investor, is ready to select startups to invest in. He is ready to spend up to $1 million to invest into economically effective startups,” the message states. According to the fund, the plan is to provide venture financing of up to $50 thousand for 1 project with investor existing the business within 3-5 years. “The venture financing does not imply provision of any collateral property by the business founders and does not guarantee any profit to the investor, i.e. the investors share all the risks with the founders. Besides, the investor will help forming the company’s strategy, establish its business processes and optimize its financial flows,” the fund writes. The fund also states that the startups will be selected during the year 2013 at the entrepreneurship support events called Atameken Startup Weekend (3-day contests of business ideas) that will be held in 22 cities of Kazakhstan: Almaty, Astana, all oblast centers and 5 single-industry towns. 7 Atameken Startup Weekend projects were held in Kazakhstan’s oblast centers in 2012. More that 170 startups were reviewed as part of the project, same of them have already started operating. “All business projects will be included into the business-angels club’s database to be created in the nearest time. The club will help consolidate private investors' efforts to support new entrepreneurs,” the fund says.