A total of 330 applications for participation in the program were submitted by technological projects from Central Asian countries, as well as Azerbaijan and Mongolia. 

The selection process kicked off in May of this year and took place in a series of stages. The projects were evaluated by a special commission, which included experts from different Central Asian countries, as well as representatives of Google Developers. 

From the 65 best projects selected by the commission, the top 15 startups have already been selected to participate in the program. A list of 11 reserve projects has also been shortlisted. 

Among the winners of the selection are projects from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan, Mongolia, and Tajikistan. The winners include such startups as CTOgram, FocusED now, Naimi.kz, Citix, Parqour, Smoothly, Beyne.ai, relog.kz, UvU Ridesharing, iDos Games, smartportfolio.app, www.fibo.cloud, Tripsome.com (Hadigro.com), zypl.ai, and NB FIT. 

Program participants will get free access to master classes and mentoring from top Google experts, learn how to effectively set up business processes, scale, build partnerships and prepare for investments. 

Google for Startups will provide PR support for the best cases on its platform and in social networks. For its part, the Astana Hub provides participants with accommodation and coworking space in the territory of the technology park, PR support, as well as the opportunity to get funding of up to 25 million KZT under the Seed Money program. The training will take place in the offline format in Nur-Sultan and will last for 3 months. 

"Partnering with a major company like Google for Startups opens up immense opportunities for startups with global potential. It will allow them to be present on global platforms. Astana Hub has been accelerating startups for five years now. Now we are going to a completely new level. We will continue to strengthen our cooperation with Google Corporation," said Magzhan Madiev, General Director of the Astana Hub International Technopark of IT Start-ups.

It is expected that in autumn 2022 there will be a second selection of the Silkway Accelerator program participants.

To note, Google for Startups is a start-up program launched by the Google corporation in 2011. It consists of more than 50 co-working and accelerators in 125 countries and provides hands-on lessons for aspiring entrepreneurs. This year, Kazakhstan became the first partner of the program in Central Asia. 

Astana Hub is the largest international technopark for IT startups in Central Asia. Here conditions are created for the free development of Kazakhstani and foreign IT-companies.