Entrepreneur Builds Central Asia’s First All-in-One Startup Database

Umed Rahimov was passionate about computer science back in school, which led him to choose IT as his major at university. From his very first year, he started working with startups, and eventually launched his own project vazifa.tj, a job search platform for Tajikistan. The service quickly gained popularity across the country. Earlier this year, Umed sold the company and shifted his focus to a new venture Stanbase — a data platform designed to help users discover innovative startups, venture and angel investors, job openings, and tech news across Central Asia.

As part of the joint project between Digital Business and Astana Hub «100 Startup Stories of Central Asia», Umed shared the inspiration behind Stanbase and how the platform stands apart from similar international services. He also talked about how much the founders have already invested in developing the product, how they plan to generate revenue, and what direction the startup is heading in over the next year.

«Back then, it felt like the best I could hope for was to become a computer science teacher»

– Umed, how did your journey in IT begin?

– When I was in school, I really liked informatics, so I kept that in mind when it came time to choose a university. But honestly, in high school, I didn’t know much about IT at all. Back then, it felt like the best I could hope for was to become a computer science teacher.

I enrolled at Tajik National University, and during my first year, I was hired as a project manager at Nexus Tajikistan, a startup similar to HeadHunter, but for the local market. Unfortunately, the project shut down during the COVID-19 lockdown. Around that time, people in the country started using Telegram more actively, so I launched a Telegram channel called tajwork, where I began posting job vacancies. The community quickly grew, and over time, it evolved into a full-fledged platform vazifa.tj. I later joined the PEAK Tajikistan acceleration program with this project, and in 2023, I began monetizing it. Today, it’s one of the largest job search platforms in the country.

–But you've been living in Tashkent for the past two years. How did you end up in Uzbekistan?

– At the beginning of 2023, we started planning to scale into Uzbekistan, so I moved to Tashkent. But we hadn’t properly evaluated the market, and eventually had to drop the idea. Initially, I thought I’d just fine-tune a few processes and head back, but I ended up staying. I worked as a project manager on different initiatives, tried to get involved in the local IT community, and at the same time continued developing vazifa.tj for the local market.

In August 2024, I launched my YouTube channel, «Umed Rahimov». Together with my team, we record podcasts with entrepreneurs, startup founders, investors, and other voices from the venture industry. So far, we’ve produced 25 episodes. We’ve also released a documentary, «The Birth of Innovations,» about the startup ecosystem in Tajikistan, as well as a " target="_blank" rel="noopener">film titled «School 21 – People», which tells the stories of those entering the IT field from scratch.

– When did the idea for Stanbase come about?

– Since 2020, I’ve been running my own Telegram channel where I talk about IT companies, products, and people from Central Asia. While preparing content for my posts, I was constantly searching for information about funding rounds, deals, and other industry news. There was definitely information out there — but it was scattered across so many different sources. I had to dig through local media, foreign platforms like Crunchbase, Dealroom, and others just to find relevant data on companies, investments, and markets.

At the beginning of this year, I sold my share and left vazifa.tj. I started thinking about what to do next. At first, we planned to build a tech product for recruiters hiring IT specialists. But after a while, we realized that niche wasn’t the most promising, so we pivoted to the idea of Stanbase.

– So, what’s the core idea behind Stanbase?

– We’re building Stanbase as a single platform that brings together all investment-related information for the region. Since August, we’ve been collecting data on startups, venture funds, angel investors, and news about funding rounds across Central Asia.

So far, we’ve collected around 80% of all deal-related news in the region from 2022 to 2025. Based on this data, we conduct R&D to study market dynamics, track anomalies and patterns, understand where investments are happening most often, what the typical check sizes are, which funds are the most active, and more.

– How is Stanbase different from similar international platforms?

– The main difference is content localization. Crunchbase is mostly focused on American startups, and Dealroom primarily covers Europe — they only recently launched in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. But even then, the data they have on our region was gathered with the help of Astana Hub and IT Park Uzbekistan. The problem with that approach is that the information won’t be updated regularly. Our goal is to keep the data constantly refreshed, and that’s much easier to do locally than from abroad.

We’re also open to sharing our data with global platforms so they can have up-to-date information as well.

«Some venture funds simply ignore us»

– What were the challenges you faced in the beginning?

– Thanks to my previous experience, things aren’t too difficult now. Back when I was working on my first projects, one of the biggest challenges was putting together a strong tech team. But now, thanks to my Telegram channel and a wide network of contacts, the right specialists often reach out to me themselves.

Networking also helps me connect with investors and fund representatives. And when someone’s hard to reach, I just invite them to my podcast. During the conversation, I often manage to find common ground and agree on potential cooperation with Stanbase.

– How open are venture funds when it comes to sharing their data with you?

– We’re already signing memorandums of cooperation with venture funds in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. These partnerships help us get structured data much faster. Instead of digging through public sources, we can simply request a table with detailed investment information directly from fund representatives.

But some funds simply ignore us, while others need regular follow-ups so they don’t forget to share their data.

One more difficulty is that we can’t get access to everything. For example, information about a company’s valuation often remains confidential. But we contact fund management directly, so sometimes we’re able to get that data under NDA. We don’t publish this information — it’s used strictly for analytics.

– What other sources do you use to gather information?

– We also integrate with Uzbekistan’s tax system through our partner iHamkor, a service that provides information on legal entities in the country. This gives us access to company details such as legal registration, turnover, tax debt, and stability rating.

However, we only collect data on startups that are already in our database.

– What are the benefits for funds and startups to register on Stanbase?

– For the funds, it will be useful to have the information placed on Stanbase during due diligence. Investors can be sure that the data is reliable, complete and reflect the real dynamics of the company.

For startups, there are several benefits. First, it significantly increases the chances of getting noticed by investors. Second, registration is free and on top of that, startups can receive additional perks from our partners. For example, we’re currently working with the corporate cloud platform Hyper App — Enterprise Cloud, which offers companies three months of free storage. Another partner, Admixer Uzbekistan, provides special terms for topping up budgets on Meta Ads and Google Ads. There’s also the fintech company Alif Uzbekistan, where startups can access six months of acquiring with no commission. And the list of partners keeps growing.

«By the end of the year, the total volume of investments in the startup will be around $50,000»

– What’s your plan for monetization?

– We plan to introduce subscription fees for several user groups, but we haven’t set the pricing yet.

The investor subscription will include extended information on all startups in the database, including legal registration, tax debt, and stability rating. It will also provide access to detailed project metrics such as growth dynamics and financial indicators. In addition, subscribers will get industry news, analytics, event updates, and more. We already have some commitments from venture funds and are preparing annual cooperation contracts with them worth several tens of thousands of dollars.

Startups can also purchase a subscription. They’ll get access to extended information from the database of projects and funds, as well as exclusive partner benefits.

We’re also considering launching a B2G direction, aiming to share industry analytics with government bodies. However, it’s still unclear who exactly our end user would be on the government side.

– What kind of funding did you use to develop the project?

– The majority of the funding comes from the founders and business angels. We haven’t disclosed the exact amount yet, but by the end of the year, the total investment will be around $50,000. These funds are distributed across all the key areas of the project.

– What are the main expenses?

– Right now, we’re investing in the team and R&D. We don’t spend money on marketing — I promote the project through my social media and YouTube channel.

«We aim to have at least 1,000 startups in the Stanbase database»

– Many projects start their journey by joining accelerators. Have you participated in any programs?

– I used that approach in my previous projects. With Stanbase, we’ve only just joined our first accelerator. By December, we’ll be taking part in the MARKET ENTRY program, launched by Astana Hub in collaboration with IT Park Uzbekistan. It’s designed for Uzbek tech companies that are ready to scale their business in Kazakhstan.

– Who else, besides you, is involved in developing Stanbase?

– The project has three co-founders, each with their own responsibilities. Our team also includes four people — developers, content creators, and so on. I’m currently in charge of basic analytics, but next year we plan to hire specialists to build tools for more in-depth research.

– What kind of deeper analysis are you planning to do?

– It will include tools for matching, scoring, and selection, which will make it easier to quickly find the right companies.

For example, if you need to prepare a ranking of the top 100 startups in Central Asia registered at Astana Hub, based on revenue, the system can automatically generate the list and display key metrics for each project.

– What other product development plans do you have for next year?

– First of all, we need to collect at least 1,000 startups in our database — we’ve already reached 11% of that goal. We also plan to integrate with Astana Hub and other partners who can provide tax data from Kazakhstan and across Central Asia. Another important goal is to attract at least 100 investors to the platform. And it would be great if we could facilitate at least 10 deals through Stanbase by then.

We also plan to raise $300,000–$500,000, which we’ll use for R&D and expanding the team. In the long term, we aim to add information about startups from the South Caucasus and become the leading platform for investment data in the region.We also can’t rule out the possibility that, in a few years, we might be acquired by a major international player.

In parallel, we’ll continue recording podcasts and sharing the experiences and insights of local startup founders and investors. Looking ahead, we also plan to launch an international project that will feature short documentary-style films about Central Asian startups making an impact globally.

– Any tips for entrepreneurs just starting out?

– It’s always been hard for me to give advice, which is why I never really did expert content on social media. Instead, I chose the interview format and started asking questions. So here’s my recommendation: if you don’t understand something, ask people who’ve been through similar experiences and know what to do.

And don’t be afraid to take action. I’ve met many startup founders who do a lot of planning but not much executing — and that approach rarely leads to success.