Oquda is the first Market Network platform in the international university recruitment industry. The platform organizes the work of specialists around the world to make foreign education available to one buyer.
The project team consists of 12 people, Beimbet Babiev is the CEO of the startup. According to the founder of OQUDA, he has been working in the field of education since 2016. In parallel with his studies in the Czech Republic, Beimbet Babiev founded an agency that sends students abroad. In 2018, having heard about recruitment to the Astana Hub acceleration program, the startup participants decided to take part.
According to Marat Tolibaev, a serial entrepreneur and participant of the Astana Hub Investor School, the OQUDA project attracted him with the prospect of international scaling.
“OQUDA works not only for Kazakhstanis, but for other countries. This topic will be relevant for many more years, as long as there is a difference in the level of higher education institutions between developing and developed countries. OQUDA has a clear development plan. We negotiated for about two months, and today we signed an agreement. I got acquainted with the project two years ago at the Invest Day Astana Hub event, where the guys presented their project to investors. Then the project seemed “raw” to me. Despite this, the guys did not give up, and for two years they stubbornly developed the project. We met with the OQUDA team recently on the occasion of preparations for the “Annual Investment Meeting”, where I am a partner of the Dubai government and organize the selection of Kazakhstani startups to participate in this forum. OQUDA took part in the selection, became winners, and will now represent Kazakhstan at the annual forum on October 20-22 this year. The meeting in preparation for the forum gave me the opportunity to dive deeper into the project and make sure that OQUDA is the best project of this year,” concluded Marat Tolibaev.
“We intend to spend the raised money on finalizing the platform and entering the Indian market, since most high school students use the services of agencies for admission to foreign higher education institutions,” says Beimbet Babiev, founder of OQUDA.
It is worth noting that Marat Tolibayev took part in the Invest Day Astana Hub as an investor, where OQUDA entered the top 10 startups that presented their business projects to investors. Invest Day Astana Hub is a business platform that brings together investment-attractive startups and venture investors who are ready to invest in Kazakhstani projects. The next Invest Day will take place in October this year.