On August 21, the International AI Center alem.ai hosted the Demo Day of the fourth cohort of AI’preneurs, Astana Hub’s flagship acceleration program for building and developing AI startups. By the end of the program, participating startups had generated $28.3K in total sales. Two startups also received soft investment commitments totaling $75K from the Astana Hub Ventures venture fund.
Just three months ago, many of the participants were meeting each other for the first time, forming teams, and exploring ideas for future products. Over the course of the program, they progressed from initial concepts to their first validated results: testing solutions on real-world use cases, receiving feedback from potential customers, and beginning to build business models around their AI products.
“The fourth AI’preneurs cohort received 468 applications, from which we selected 74 participants. In just three months, they created 16 AI startups and reached their first customers, launched pilots, and secured initial investment commitments. This year, for the first time, we held the program at alem.ai, with an even stronger focus on hands-on execution. This cohort once again demonstrated the strength of the AI talent and entrepreneurial teams emerging today. That is why it is especially important to create an environment where they can develop their ideas, access expertise, and turn them into products that meet real market demand,” said Magzhan Madiyev, CEO of Astana Hub.
Commercial traction became one of the key outcomes of the fourth AI’preneurs cohort. In addition to $28.3K in actual sales, the teams reached agreements on deals worth $56.7K, demonstrating market demand for the solutions developed during the program.
Investor interest also highlighted the teams’ potential. Astana Hub Ventures provided soft commitments totaling $75K to two startups: $25K for Uniqore.ai and $50K for Mineral Intelligence.
The following startups were presented at the fourth cohort’s 2026 Demo Day:
- Uniqore.ai — an AI solution for business process automation that learns a company’s context and identifies operations that can be automated.
- HOOK — a Go-to-Market platform helping wellness projects enter the U.S. market.
- CorePilot — an AI-powered sales automation tool for sports academies and educational centers.
- CloneLine — a service for generating vertical video content without filming or video-editing skills.
- Siplinx AI — an AI tool for transcription and note-taking during online meetings on Google Meet, Zoom, and Microsoft Teams.
- Tunely — an AI operations manager for multi-location B2C businesses that analyzes reviews and social media mentions and helps keep knowledge bases and employee training up to date.
- Mineral Intelligence — an AI platform for rapid assessment and due diligence of geological assets based on archival data.
- Six7 — an adaptive AI math tutor that analyzes a child’s answers, identifies errors, and builds a personalized learning path.
- Barsum — an AI platform for developing children’s reading skills that analyzes reading and text comprehension while enabling parents and teachers to track progress.
- INMII — an AI service that uses apartment floor plans to generate options for space planning, furniture placement, and interior design.
- VentorMe.AI — an AI platform supporting the university admissions process, from career guidance and university selection to document preparation and deadline tracking.
- Quilla — an AI assistant for financial managers that automates the processing of primary documents and financial operations.
- Facefitnation — an AI assistant for face and body analysis and the creation of personalized training and care programs.
- QRown.AI — a B2B SaaS platform for restaurants and cafés featuring a personal AI waiter. The team consists of participants from Tomorrow School, Kazakhstan’s first peer-to-peer AI school based at alem.ai, who joined forces during AI’preneurs to build the startup.
- MYupgrade — an AI platform for business events featuring registration, digital passes, and simultaneous AI-powered translation. During the program, the team signed a KZT 5 million contract.
- Tanra AI — an intelligent construction management system that compares project plans with real-time data from construction sites, helping identify delays and assess their impact on timelines and budgets.
“AI’preneurs helped us look at Barsum not simply as a product, but as a scalable business. During the program, we tested our key hypotheses, sharpened our focus on developing children’s reading skills, strengthened the AI component, and gained a much clearer understanding of how to scale the product. For us, Demo Day is not the finish line, but the beginning of the next stage in Barsum’s development,” said Daulet Besheyev, CPO of Barsum.
In 2026, AI’preneurs was held offline for the first time at the International AI Center alem.ai. Participants had access to a 24/7 coworking space and coliving facilities for those coming from outside Astana. The program consisted of two tracks: the four-week Founder Lab, focused on developing an entrepreneurial mindset and forming teams, and the ten-week Core Accelerator, during which participants developed MVPs, tested hypotheses, worked with their first customers, and began generating sales.
Throughout the program, the teams also worked with entrepreneurs and industry experts, including Ilya Krasinsky and Alexey Lee, founder of Arbuz.kz, Aviata, and Ticketon, as well as startup founders with experience in international markets and the Y Combinator accelerator.
For reference:
AI’preneurs is Astana Hub’s flagship acceleration program, launched in 2024. It is Kazakhstan’s first platform specifically designed to launch startups in the field of artificial intelligence. The program brings together professionals from a wide range of fields, from machine learning and software engineering to marketing and product management. Over three months, participants progress from an initial idea and team formation to bringing a product to market.
AI’preneurs Demo Day is the program’s final event, where participants present their projects to investors, venture capital funds, and business representatives.
On August 21, the International AI Center alem.ai hosted the Demo Day of the fourth cohort of AI’preneurs, Astana Hub’s flagship acceleration program for building and developing AI startups. By the end of the program, participating startups had generated $28.3K in total sales. Two startups also received soft investment commitments totaling $75K from the Astana Hub Ventures venture fund.
Just three months ago, many of the participants were meeting each other for the first time, forming teams, and exploring ideas for future products. Over the course of the program, they progressed from initial concepts to their first validated results: testing solutions on real-world use cases, receiving feedback from potential customers, and beginning to build business models around their AI products.
“The fourth AI’preneurs cohort received 468 applications, from which we selected 74 participants. In just three months, they created 16 AI startups and reached their first customers, launched pilots, and secured initial investment commitments. This year, for the first time, we held the program at alem.ai, with an even stronger focus on hands-on execution. This cohort once again demonstrated the strength of the AI talent and entrepreneurial teams emerging today. That is why it is especially important to create an environment where they can develop their ideas, access expertise, and turn them into products that meet real market demand,” said Magzhan Madiyev, CEO of Astana Hub.
Commercial traction became one of the key outcomes of the fourth AI’preneurs cohort. In addition to $28.3K in actual sales, the teams reached agreements on deals worth $56.7K, demonstrating market demand for the solutions developed during the program.
Investor interest also highlighted the teams’ potential. Astana Hub Ventures provided soft commitments totaling $75K to two startups: $25K for Uniqore.ai and $50K for Mineral Intelligence.
The following startups were presented at the fourth cohort’s 2026 Demo Day:
- Uniqore.ai — an AI solution for business process automation that learns a company’s context and identifies operations that can be automated.
- HOOK — a Go-to-Market platform helping wellness projects enter the U.S. market.
- CorePilot — an AI-powered sales automation tool for sports academies and educational centers.
- CloneLine — a service for generating vertical video content without filming or video-editing skills.
- Siplinx AI — an AI tool for transcription and note-taking during online meetings on Google Meet, Zoom, and Microsoft Teams.
- Tunely — an AI operations manager for multi-location B2C businesses that analyzes reviews and social media mentions and helps keep knowledge bases and employee training up to date.
- Mineral Intelligence — an AI platform for rapid assessment and due diligence of geological assets based on archival data.
- Six7 — an adaptive AI math tutor that analyzes a child’s answers, identifies errors, and builds a personalized learning path.
- Barsum — an AI platform for developing children’s reading skills that analyzes reading and text comprehension while enabling parents and teachers to track progress.
- INMII — an AI service that uses apartment floor plans to generate options for space planning, furniture placement, and interior design.
- VentorMe.AI — an AI platform supporting the university admissions process, from career guidance and university selection to document preparation and deadline tracking.
- Quilla — an AI assistant for financial managers that automates the processing of primary documents and financial operations.
- Facefitnation — an AI assistant for face and body analysis and the creation of personalized training and care programs.
- QRown.AI — a B2B SaaS platform for restaurants and cafés featuring a personal AI waiter. The team consists of participants from Tomorrow School, Kazakhstan’s first peer-to-peer AI school based at alem.ai, who joined forces during AI’preneurs to build the startup.
- MYupgrade — an AI platform for business events featuring registration, digital passes, and simultaneous AI-powered translation. During the program, the team signed a KZT 5 million contract.
- Tanra AI — an intelligent construction management system that compares project plans with real-time data from construction sites, helping identify delays and assess their impact on timelines and budgets.
“AI’preneurs helped us look at Barsum not simply as a product, but as a scalable business. During the program, we tested our key hypotheses, sharpened our focus on developing children’s reading skills, strengthened the AI component, and gained a much clearer understanding of how to scale the product. For us, Demo Day is not the finish line, but the beginning of the next stage in Barsum’s development,” said Daulet Besheyev, CPO of Barsum.
In 2026, AI’preneurs was held offline for the first time at the International AI Center alem.ai. Participants had access to a 24/7 coworking space and coliving facilities for those coming from outside Astana. The program consisted of two tracks: the four-week Founder Lab, focused on developing an entrepreneurial mindset and forming teams, and the ten-week Core Accelerator, during which participants developed MVPs, tested hypotheses, worked with their first customers, and began generating sales.
Throughout the program, the teams also worked with entrepreneurs and industry experts, including Ilya Krasinsky and Alexey Lee, founder of Arbuz.kz, Aviata, and Ticketon, as well as startup founders with experience in international markets and the Y Combinator accelerator.
For reference:
AI’preneurs is Astana Hub’s flagship acceleration program, launched in 2024. It is Kazakhstan’s first platform specifically designed to launch startups in the field of artificial intelligence. The program brings together professionals from a wide range of fields, from machine learning and software engineering to marketing and product management. Over three months, participants progress from an initial idea and team formation to bringing a product to market.
AI’preneurs Demo Day is the program’s final event, where participants present their projects to investors, venture capital funds, and business representatives.
Share
