CEVF Awards 2026 Honors Top Startups and Investors

Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) — The fifth Central Eurasian Venture Forum (CEVF 2026), held in Uzbekistan for the first time, featured the milestone CEVF Awards ceremony, celebrating the region’s most significant participants in the startup ecosystem, venture market, and technology sector.

This year, the forum attracted approximately 800 participants, including investors, entrepreneurs, top managers, and representatives of venture funds from Central Asia and beyond.

Winners were selected through a multi-stage process involving application submissions, expert evaluations, and an open online vote, ensuring transparency and broad engagement from the professional community.

Freedom Holding, an international financial group engaged in brokerage, banking, dealer, and depository services, won the award for Best Corporate Open Innovation Strategy.

Startup Garage, the incubation program for tech startups at the international Astana Hub technopark, was recognized as the Best Ecosystem Player.

The award for Best Tech Media went to Uzbekistan’s news platform Pivot, covering business and innovation trends. Umed Rahimov from Tajikistan, founder of the platforms Vazifa and Stanbase, was named Best Tech Influencer.

School21, a digital technology school operating in Samarkand and Tashkent, received the ESG Leader title. The top venture fund award went to Uzbekistan’s AloqaVentures, the corporate fund of Aloqabank, while Red Team Accelerator was recognized as the Best Startup Support Program.

In the Newcomer Business Angel category, Sardor Kodirov, Vice President of Strategy at Yandex Uzbekistan, was honored, while Dana Kunanbayeva, partner at LP MA7 Ventures and Most Accelerator Fund, was named the Most Active Business Angel.

Kazakhstan-based AI startup MoonAI won two awards—“Discovery of the Year” and “Fastest-Growing Startup”—with a company valuation of US$5 million. Datatruck’s Series A round of US$12 million, led by Avenue Growth Partners, was recognized as Deal of the Year.

“The Central Eurasian venture ecosystem is in a stage of active growth and transformation. Over its five-year history, the CEVF Awards have become an important tool for recognizing bright talents and the region’s top market players,” said Azamat Karamatov, CEO of IT Park Uzbekistan.

The forum is organized by MOST Holding and IT Park Uzbekistan with the support of the Ministry of Digital Technologies of Uzbekistan. Over five years, CEVF has hosted more than 5,000 participants from 50 countries, showcased over 400 startups, and facilitated deals totaling over US$34 million.