Startups and venture capital: how to realize the potential of youth?

**Startups and Venture Capital: How to Realize the Potential of Youth?**

Today, it is incorrect to view startups merely as a trendy direction in the technology sector or as lucky projects of young programmers who have created a successful product. In Uzbekistan, startups are becoming an important part of the new economy. This is an opportunity to transform the knowledge, ideas, and talent of young people into new companies, jobs, exports, and modern technologies.

The global economy is also developing in this very direction. Venture capital, that is, the volume of investments directed to rapidly growing technological companies, has started to grow again. In 2025, the volume of such investments worldwide exceeded 500 billion dollars. At the same time, investors have become much more meticulous in selecting projects, directing more funds to companies that have proven their potential for rapid development in practice. In particular, interest in artificial intelligence has increased significantly. In 2025, companies related to artificial intelligence accounted for nearly 61 percent of the total value of global venture investments.

This global trend is of particular importance for Uzbekistan. Because our country possesses the most important resource of the new economy — youth. It is not just about providing young people with employment. It is important for us to create conditions for young people themselves to become entrepreneurs, form teams, hire employees, and bring their products to foreign markets.

Such changes are already taking place. In 2026, more than 1,200 companies that are residents of IT Park were led by entrepreneurs under the age of 30. This constitutes nearly one-third of the total number of residents. More than 10,000 jobs have been created by the companies they lead. These figures show that today young people can become not only participants in the labor market but also an active force creating new jobs.

In the next stage of development, the most important task is to learn how to turn a good idea into a sustainable company.

However, the main indicator of success is not only the amount of millions attracted. It is much more important how many companies have been able to create a product in high demand in the market, enter new markets, increase sales volume, create jobs, and continue to develop even after the initial investments.

For this very reason, we must gradually transition from supporting only the launch of startups to stimulating their subsequent growth.

Many hackathons, competitions, and educational programs can be organized. A young entrepreneur can be helped in creating the initial prototype of a product. But the real result occurs when this prototype turns into a finished product, the product turns into a company, and the company begins to sell its solutions not only within the country but also abroad.

Over the past few years, the attitude of international investors towards Uzbekistan has changed significantly.

Until recently, our country was rarely considered as a territory where international-level technological companies could be created. Today, the situation is different. In 2026, StartupBlink recognized Uzbekistan as the fastest-growing startup ecosystem of the year. The growth rate of the corresponding index amounted to 227.3 percent. Seven more cities of Uzbekistan were included in the international ranking, and Tashkent was noted as the leading startup city of Central Asia.

This is an important result, but it should not be a reason for us to limit ourselves to the achievements made.

Competition in Central Asia for attracting talented entrepreneurs, investments, and technological companies is intensifying. For example, Kazakhstan maintains its strong position in the regional startup ecosystem. Therefore, our task is not only to demonstrate high growth rates for one or two years, but to create a stable system in which successful technological companies are regularly formed.

One of the bright examples of how large a scale a company established in Uzbekistan can reach is Uzum, which has attracted more than 350 million dollars in investment. The importance of this example for our country lies not only in the company achieving "unicorn" status.

This demonstrates to the global market that a company established and developing in Uzbekistan can traverse the path from a local business to a major technological company and attract capital from international investors.

Now, it is important that such success stories do not remain isolated cases.

We need new companies in the fields of artificial intelligence, financial technologies, education, e-commerce, logistics, cloud solutions, healthcare, and corporate software.

In recent years, various mechanisms aimed at supporting startups have been introduced in Uzbekistan.

In particular, the Digital Startups program provides for co-financing investments attracted from international funds and business angels, covering part of the costs of incubation, acceleration, and working with mentors, assisting in the registration of intellectual property, and other support mechanisms.

Special attention is also paid to youth entrepreneurship. Within the framework of the "Youth Business" program for 2025–2027, it is planned to cover 350,000 young people and create at least 100,000 jobs. Various financial instruments are envisaged for young entrepreneurs, including microcredits and opportunities for larger-scale financing of projects that create new jobs.

All of this is creating a solid foundation.

However, state support cannot replace the market.

The task of the state is to reduce barriers, form clear and transparent rules, and assist young people in acquiring knowledge and accessing initial capital. In the next stage, the company must develop through a quality product, customers, and private investments.

It is important for us to transition to a model where every dollar of support allocated by the state serves to attract several dollars of private capital.

In such conditions, budget funds become not a source of permanent financing for business, but a tool to start a new investment process.

In particular, developing the community of private venture funds and business angels — entrepreneurs and investors who invest their own funds in young companies — is of great importance.

Uzbekistan is already moving in this direction. By the middle of 2026, Aloqa Ventures had financed more than 10 startups in the amount of approximately 690,000 dollars, and IT Park Ventures had invested more than 1.1 million dollars in 4 companies. Also, Yoshlar Ventures, UC Ventures, and other market participants carried out investment activities.

The emergence of such participants is extremely important. Because at different stages of a startup's development, it requires different volumes of financing.

For a young team just testing its idea, a few tens of thousands of dollars may be sufficient. For a company that has found its customers and started active growth, hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars are needed. A large technological business entering the international market requires investments of an entirely different scale.

Therefore, the development of the entire ecosystem cannot be assessed solely on the basis of the total volume of invested funds. What is important is that there is a clear and understandable path of development for the entrepreneur from the very initial stage to a large business.