From Teaching Math in the Kazakh Regions to Running a $5M Startup
Askar Maksat began his career as a math tutor, working with students in Almaty and across various regions of Kazakhstan. When he decided to open his own education center, his longtime friend Aibek Kuatbayev, founder of the IT company Bugin Holding, suggested taking it online. The idea was to create courses to help school students prepare for the UNT, as well as entrance exams for NIS and BIL. That’s how the project Daryn Online was born, a platform where kids aged 6 to 18 can study subjects like English, physics, computer science, and more.
In just a few years, the EdTech platform has attracted hundreds of thousands of users and expanded into several international markets. Alongside Kazakhstan, Daryn Online now operates in Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan, with plans to launch in Türkiye soon. As part of the joint project “100 Startup Stories of Central Asia” by Digital Business and Astana Hub, Askar shared insights on building a comprehensive online education ecosystem, the intense competition in Kazakhstan’s EdTech scene, and the key role Silkway Accelerator plays in helping startups grow.
«In our chat, they joke that the only thing left to launch now is a dating service»
— Askar, what inspired you to connect your life with tutoring? Why did education feel like the right path for you?
— Back in school, I was always taking part in math competitions, both national and international. I actually counted once: I participated in over 50 of them and won prizes at around 40. In my first year at Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, I started earning money by tutoring school students in math.
In big cities like Almaty and Astana, there are plenty of great specialists. But I managed to stay competitive because teens enjoyed learning from someone who was almost their age. Over time, I began traveling around the Almaty region to give kids in rural areas a chance to see the world of math from a different perspective.
I met Aibek Kuatbayev at university. We studied the same specialization and occasionally crossed paths on different projects. In 2017, we started talking more and realized we shared similar values and a common vision for business. At that time, I was teaching around a thousand students a year. I told Aibek I wanted to open my own school. He asked, “Why just one? Don’t you want to teach all of Kazakhstan?” That question got us thinking. We spent about a year developing the idea of a large-scale online project, working on the positioning, scale, and business model.
After that, I went to Kaunas to pursue an MBA. When I returned to Almaty, we decided to launch Daryn Online. The project quickly gained popularity among school students, and over time, our monthly recurring revenue (MRR) grew to $500,000.
— What makes Daryn Online stand out?
— Our main focus is helping school graduates prepare for entrance exams to both Kazakhstani and international universities. Mentors track each student’s progress and stay in touch with their parents. Lessons are delivered online, and students regularly take exams to monitor how they’re doing.
We use a BNPL (Buy Now, Pay Later) model, meaning students get full access to the course upfront, but can pay in several installments, with no loans or interest involved. Our study programs are divided into three main blocks:
- Grades 1–4: An online after-school club where we help children with their homework.
- Grades 5–6: Preparation for entrance exams to specialized schools like BIL and NIS.
- Grades 9–11: Preparation for university entrance exams, both in Kazakhstan and abroad, where programs for international students are available.
We’ve launched several products within the Daryn Online ecosystem. For example, there’s Educenter, a platform for selling courses, Ordagen, a project for preschools, and Daryn Teacher, a course platform for educators. In May this year, we sold our offline preschools for just over 100 million tenge, but we kept the training program for preschool caregivers.
— It’s almost like you accompany a child as they grow: starting with Ordagen in primary school, then Daryn Online for secondary education, and finally Educenter, where they can learn a new profession through courses.
— In our chat, they joked that the only thing left to launch is a dating service :) And funny enough, we actually have some ideas in that direction, though development hasn’t started yet.
— What made you decide to sell the preschools?
— Many companies that moved into offline operations ended up killing their online side. The two are completely different business models.
First of all, managing both directions together turned out to be complicated. We needed to build the right management structure for both the offline and online products. Secondly, our partners began to have different views on the future development of Ordagen.
So my advice to entrepreneurs is this: if you run an online business, think a thousand times before moving offline. And when choosing partners, look not only at the financial indicators but also at whether your values truly align with theirs.
«After finishing school, children will learn professions and go on to get jobs»
— Do you see projects like Daryn Online as a supplement to traditional education or as a long-term replacement?
— Offline, we’ll remain as we are. Our role is to provide additional education. As for how the world of education will change, I believe university education will gradually decline. After finishing school, students will learn professions and move straight into jobs. This approach is already being tested in some places, for example in the UAE, where schools run joint study programs with universities.
– Who do you see as the core users of your platform?
– Our student base changes every year. In 9th grade, many students aren’t very motivated to prepare for exams, but as the UNT gets closer, they start worrying about their future — and that’s when preparation becomes serious. By creating products for younger children, we also build a pathway to bring new audiences into Daryn Online who are already familiar with our ecosystem. For primary school grades, we’re even ready to work at cost, focusing our earnings on exam preparation programs.
— The EdTech space in Kazakhstan seems pretty competitive. Is there enough room for everyone? And how do you manage to stay ahead of the competition?
— For new players, the market is tough. Not every startup will succeed. There are already several strong, well-established companies holding their ground. The only real way to compete is by continuously improving the quality of your service.
For now, the market is big enough for everyone. This year, around 140,000 students will prepare for exams online, and about 300,000 people will take the UNT. Both the audience and the overall market are continuing to grow.
But every September, the competition for the audience starts from scratch. So there’s no real reason to worry that someone won’t get their piece of the pie. Some players quickly reach their limit of 100 or 200 students, and managing education quality at that scale is one thing. But it’s a completely different challenge when you’re working with, say, 5,000 students. That’s where things get tough. There have been cases where a company did a great job preparing 100 students, then scaled too fast, brought in a thousand and ended up with poor results.
«This year, we expect our turnover to reach between $4 and $5 million»
— Which countries, besides Kazakhstan, does Daryn Online currently operate in?
— We’re currently developing three foreign markets: Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, and Kyrgyzstan. We’re also preparing to launch in Türkiye soon. I’m responsible for overseeing these expansions. Our goal is to build a unified school education system that supports students from the age of six all the way through to graduation exams.
Entering new countries has shown us that what works in Kazakhstan doesn't always work elsewhere. Still, many believe that if something succeeds in the local market, they can simply copy the model and it will work. But in reality, you face challenges like legal issues, HR processes, and local specifics that require careful adaptation.
— Back in spring 2024, Aibek mentioned in our interview that there was interest in the MENA region. Are the plans to enter the Middle East market still relevant today?
— Yes, we did consider that region. But after analyzing the market, we realized that we can become a unicorn by focusing solely on Central Asia and Türkiye.
Across these five countries, there are 32 million students in grades 1 through 12. Daryn Online will expand its product offering gradually, entering each market step by step. Reaching just 1 million active students will be enough to achieve a $1 billion company valuation. This is our long-term strategy for the next 10 years.
Once we are firmly established in these countries, we’ll evaluate the next markets to enter. Even in Kazakhstan, when the market doubles, we’ll have a strong opportunity to scale further.
— Türkiye isn’t the most obvious choice for scaling a startup. First, compared to Kazakhstan, the level of digitalization is lower. Second, the national currency is quite unstable. Didn’t that hold you back?
— Türkiye is a large market, with around 18 million school students, according to the latest data. We’re aware of the challenges related to the unstable lira, but our focus is on the mass market. We plan to review and adjust our pricing twice a year, so the exchange rate shouldn’t have a major impact on our development.
— How is Daryn Online doing today, financially speaking?
— Since the beginning of the year, we’ve reached a turnover of $3 million, and by December, we expect to hit between $4 and $5 million. Our business is profitable, with a margin of around 30%. Each month, we teach 20,000 users, most of whom purchase courses that last several months.
«Thanks to the accelerator, we grew our revenue in Uzbekistan by 5 times»
— This year, you took part in the Silkway Accelerator program by Astana Hub and Google for Startups. What key insights did you gain from that experience?
— This was our first accelerator that truly provided valuable knowledge for rapid business growth. So, what did we gain? First and foremost — networking. It’s an excellent platform for connecting with other startups and investors. Secondly, the weekly reporting process. CEOs don’t usually report in this way, so it gave managers a great opportunity to step back and evaluate their work from a fresh perspective.
The result of the three-month program was clear: we saw real revenue growth. In Uzbekistan alone, we achieved a 5x increase.
— You joined the accelerator while already operating in five markets with turnovers in the hundreds of millions of tenge. Didn’t you ever think, “What more can they teach us?”
— We did have those thoughts. Other participants even asked us, “Guys, aren’t you bored here?” But it’s never too late to learn. Honestly, we didn’t know exactly what we’d get out of the program. But we understood that, at the very least, the networking would be a huge benefit. In the end, we were able to accelerate growth in some markets by testing different hypotheses.
Having an outside perspective is incredibly valuable for business development, and that’s exactly what the accelerator gave us.
— To wrap things up — what are your plans for the future development of Daryn Online?
— First, our goal is to bring everything together into a single ecosystem that supports children from age 6 to 18. Second, we plan to scale our products to other Turkic-speaking countries. And third, we aim to integrate artificial intelligence more actively. It’s simply not possible to manage the learning process for thousands of students without it.
Today, AI is processing large volumes of data. We experimented with chatbots, but they didn’t quite work — kids quickly notice when they’re not talking to a real person. On top of that, children don’t just ask about study topics. Sometimes they’ll ask things like, “What should I do if I had a fight with a friend?” And that’s where a human teacher is essential.
We’ve started using AI to analyze student progress. We collect initial data, such as knowledge gaps in certain topics, the student’s strengths, and the types of tasks they complete. All of this information is then passed on to a mentor, who creates a personalized study plan tailored to that student’s needs.
