The startup ecosystem in Central Eurasia is having its moment. What started as 485 applications from across 27 countries — including Armenia, Azerbaijan, Estonia, Georgia, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mexico, Moldova, Mongolia, Pakistan, Qatar, Romania, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Tajikistan, Tunisia, Türkiye, Turkmenistan, UAE, the U.K., Ukraine, the U.S., Uzbekistan, and Vietnam — has culminated in the largest startup pitch competition in Central Eurasia’s history.
The “Road to Battlefield” is putting the region’s most promising entrepreneurs on a direct path to San Francisco’s most prestigious startup stage at TechCrunch’s Startup Battlefield 200.
The Road to Battlefield competition, organized by Silkroad Innovation Hub in partnership with TechCrunch and Freedom Holding, is more than just another startup contest. It marks a historic milestone for a region that has been steadily building its dynamic tech ecosystem and will be remembered as the event that put Central Eurasia on the global startup map.
Asset Abdualiyev, CEO and founder of Silkroad Innovation Hub, had this to say:
At Silkroad Innovation Hub, our mission is to put Central Eurasia on the global startup and VC map. This initiative represents an important milestone because, for the first time, TechCrunch hosted a regional competition to source great startups for their prestigious Battlefield competition. When we began, it was simply an idea, a vision to empower founders from underrepresented geographies. We’re pleased to announce that this has become the largest startup competition in Central Eurasia’s history, demonstrating a significant interest from founders across the region in building truly innovative companies and showcasing them globally. We’re grateful to TechCrunch for their continued partnership and their ongoing interest in the region.
Between July 21 and August 12, 380 startups pitched across nine national rounds online, delivering an impressive 32 hours of pitching content. The competition showcased remarkable diversity, with 35% of participating startups founded by women, and the youngest entrepreneur, just 14 years old, was from Unify (Uzbekistan).
The startups represented various development stages: 43 in the idea stage, 224 with MVPs, 127 in pre-seed, 65 in the seed stage, and 26 in pre-Series A.
Now, four standout startups — Polygraf AI (Azerbaijan and USA), QuickShipper (Georgia), Surfaice (USA and Kazakhstan), and ArtSkin (Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan) — have secured spots at TechCrunch Startup Battlefield 2025 in San Francisco, where they’ll compete against some of the most promising ventures from around the world.
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This marks the first time in TechCrunch history that startups from Central Eurasia have had a dedicated pathway to one of the tech world’s most prestigious competitions. Beyond identifying high-potential ventures, the initiative has sparked cross-border collaboration, attracted international investor interest, and firmly positioned Central Eurasia as a region to watch on the global innovation map.
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