The first stage of the Kazakhstan startup CTO rating , a joint project between Digital Business and Yandex Cloud, has ended. The task of the project is to create in There is a new competition in Kazakhstan to evaluate the activities of the Chief Technical Officer in startups in Kazakhstan, to emphasize the importance of this role in the technology business.

The project has been running for several months among the CTO of Kazakhstani Astana Hub resident startups at the financing stage. Series B inclusive.

The expert jury reviewed dozens of applications from technical managers of Kazakhstani startups and selected the top 10 finalists.

All participants are represented here. Below are the finalists (the list is presented in alphabetical order by the last names of the participants).

• Nurken Adilbayev, ProsperPay 
• Robert Arakelyan, Pleep 
• Azamat Yeshmukhametov, Mirai Tech 
• Genghis Kenshimov, Verigram 
• Paul Cookies, Likepost 
• Dauken Seitkali, ARLAN BIOTECH 
• Igor Storozhuk, Grand Games 
• Ayan Wali, SAUAPP 
• Zhaksylyk Ualiev, Esqadra (ex Akhter Studios)
• Serik Shaikamalov, HajjTravel

The selection of the finalists was conducted by an authoritative jury of seven experts from the IT industry in Kazakhstan.:

• Alexander Kuttukov — CEO of ABR Tech;
• Igor Borodikhin — CTO of Kolesa Group;
• Nazgul Baitemirova — Chief of Staff of Astana Hub Ventures Ltd;
• Nikita Razhev is the Head of Startup programs and commercial initiatives at Yandex Cloud.;
• Kairat Bazarbekov — Managing Director for IT at Centras Group;
• Ivan Korshunov — Director of the Cybersecurity Department of Bereke Bank JSC;
• Vitaly Volyanyuk is the Director and co—founder of Digital Business.

The experts evaluated the participants according to five key criteria:

• Technical competencies;
• Leadership skills characteristics;
• Business thinking;
• Innovativeness and adaptability;
• Previous ones achievements.

The jury members shared their impressions.:

"To be honest, it was both difficult and very interesting to choose at the same time. The geography was impressive – there are CTOs whose solutions work from Kazakhstan to the USA, Mexico and Egypt. Someone attracted $500,000 in investments, someone launched MVP for 6 weeks. It turned out to be a difficult task to distribute the points," Head of startup programs and commercial initiatives at Yandex The cloud is Nikita Razhev.

"Many thanks to all the participants. In almost every questionnaire – and they were mostly filled out in great detail – the jury members found a lot of valuable information: what challenges our service stations face and how they are solved. We also noticed that many SRTs hardly speak publicly. Their hard work – everything that is “under the hood” of any technology project – often remains in the shadows. It seems important to us to highlight these heroes, because the success of a startup critically depends on the work of the service station and the entire technical team," said Vitaly Volyanyuk, director and co—founder of Digital Business.

Interviews with each of the finalists are ahead – they will be published on Digital Business platforms in the coming weeks. Then a public vote will start, according to the results of which the best CTO of the year will be chosen. 

The winner will receive a special prize from the general partner of the project, Yandex Cloud. The award ceremony will take place in October.