Thirteen startups completed the 1st batch of the Silkway Accelerator program and presented the outcomes of their progress. For example, Citix - an information and navigation system, has entered the markets of Turkey and the United Arab Emirates. The founders of zypl.ai increased their valuation from $6 million to $10 million by expanding into two new markets: Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. And Beyne.ai, a facial recognition, and faux search system shifted from developing merely technology to creating a whole ecosystem, combining with large corporations and developing computer vision.
 
"I initially expected this was just another normal startup program, but now I think it's the best program I've ever been a part of. We started to act more actively, but at the same time more intelligently, started to look for new business approaches that helped us accelerate our growth, particularly in the American, Canadian, and Australian markets," shared Yerzhan Asanov, CEO of Smoothly LTD.

His mobile app Smoothly, which promotes falling asleep quickly, was included in the top 100 App Store apps in Canada and Australia in the health and fitness category, reaching more than 30,000 downloads.

Participants say that through the program and trackers, they have learned to think globally and have rethought their business strategy. Under Silkway Accelerator, startups have achieved good results in three months.

Silkway Accelerator's lead: Alisher Khasanov is an international consultant on the development and market launch of products, services, and companies. He has extensive experience in the companies such as Rutube, Rambler, Yandex, and Yandex.Turkey, Digital October, and other well-known accelerators such as IIDF.

"I got a lot of pleasure working with these startups; they burn boldly, proudly, cheerfully. And, as they say, they are the first swallows of the Silkway Accelerator; they trod this road and showed all startups how to fly forward, grow, and take their positions in different countries. I have done everything possible to make them run, and I hope that you will hear about them for a very long time, and it will be very loud," - said Alisher Khasanov.

During the three months of the program, the CTOgram project covered 230 thousand active car owners and more than 2 thousand repair shops. The Mongolian company Fibo.cloud has increased its monthly income by 22 times by signing a contract for public cloud services with the government of Mongolia and a successful agreement signing with a telecommunications company in Kazakhstan. FocusED now has signed contracts for 15 million tenge, and has identified its niche in the market. iDos Games attracted 60 thousand new users and increased its monthly revenue by almost 4 times. Naimi - successfully entered the UAE market and received 70 orders, while its sales volume amounted to $ 6 thousand. The Kyrgyz company NB Fit adapted the product to the US market and increased the percentage of payments from the USA and Europe from 20% to 30%. And Tripsome.com sales for 3 months of the accelerator exceeded sales for 17 months before the program. In addition, the company has successfully launched a website in Kazakhstan, signed contracts with more than 30 local partners, and made its first sales. UvU increased its key indicators 3-5 times, including turnover, revenue, and the number of orders, and also changed its business model and focused on a broader niche. Zan.bar - entered the European markets and integrated its product with 12 banks in the UK.

"The first Silkway Accelerator stream has shown its high efficiency. In three months, all participating companies have grown significantly. With the support of Google and Astana Hub experts, startups have done a great job of transformation and achieved excellent results. We wish the participants to maintain this pace of development. Meanwhile, we are continuing the program and are waiting for the results of the second stream soon," said Magzhan Madiyev, CEO of Astana Hub.

The first stream of the Silkway Accelerator program started in July. Following the program's results, a Demo Day was held at the Digital Bridge forum on September 28.

The second stream of the Silkway Accelerator program started on September 2; the training also takes offline in Astana and will last 3 months. Silkway Accelerator participants also received free accommodation near Astana Hub, workspace, and a chance to receive funding up to $55 thousand under the Seed Money program.

Google for Startups is a startup program launched by Google Corporation in 2011. It consists of over 50 coworking and accelerators in 125 countries and provides practical lessons for aspiring entrepreneurs. In 2022, Astana Hub became the program's first partner in Central Asia.