Over 1,000 Uzbek entrepreneurs find mentors through MicroMentor platform

Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.uz) — The popularity of digital mentoring as a tool for small and medium-sized business development is growing in Uzbekistan. Over its two years of operation, more than 1,000 entrepreneurs and 500 mentors from all regions of the country have joined the MicroMentor international platform.

The results of the first phase of the project's implementation were reviewed during the Business Mentoring Forum, organized at the U-Enter Innovation Center with the support of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the European Union.

The MicroMentor platform operates in more than 180 countries worldwide and is a free digital service that allows entrepreneurs to find experienced mentors to solve business challenges. In Central Asia, the project has been active since 2024, with the U-Enter Innovation Center serving as its local partner in Uzbekistan.

Mentoring as a Tool for Business Development

Opening the forum, Matteo Colandjeli, Managing Director of the Small and Medium Business Finance and Development Department at the EBRD, noted that the results of the project's first phase in Uzbekistan exceeded expectations.

According to him, more than a thousand entrepreneurs and over five hundred mentors participated in the platform, enabling the formation of hundreds of active mentoring relationships.

"For both novice and experienced entrepreneurs, access to the knowledge of practicing experts helps improve products, bring them to market more effectively, and become better prepared to interact with investors. At the same time, the platform remains completely free, making professional expertise as accessible as possible," the EBRD representative emphasized.

Following the project's outcomes, the most active participants of the platform were recognized. Zaituna Nasirova, founder of the consulting company ZN Standard, was named the "Most Active Mentor."

Digital Mentoring Becomes Part of the Entrepreneurial Ecosystem

According to Zaituna Nasirova, interest in the platform in Uzbekistan has grown significantly in recent years thanks to U-Enter's active efforts to popularize the project among entrepreneurs and the startup community.

She noted that the main advantage of the platform is the ability to select a mentor tailored to a business's specific specialization and objectives.

"Often, entrepreneurs themselves cannot identify the reasons hindering the development of their business. It is precisely in such cases that a mentor's experience helps to see the problem from the outside and find the optimal solution," the expert noted.

According to Simone Ze Atanasovski, Deputy Director of the Small and Medium Business Finance and Development Department for Central Asia and Mongolia at the EBRD, mentoring remains one of the most effective tools for supporting entrepreneurship.

She emphasized that mentoring is particularly in demand among youth and women entrepreneurs, who often find it more difficult to access professional consultations and business contacts.

According to her, the EBRD has adapted the platform into Russian and is continuing work on its further localization, while simultaneously expanding the network of regional mentors.

International Experience Can Anchor a National Mentoring System

One of the central themes of the forum was the development of a mentoring culture in Uzbekistan.

Usmon Rakhimdjanov, a representative of IT Park Uzbekistan, proposed creating specialized national mentoring platforms for specific sectors of the economy and regions of the country.

In his opinion, successful entrepreneurs, representatives of the Uzbek diaspora, and specialists from international companies should be more actively involved in this effort.

"Experienced specialists must share their knowledge with young entrepreneurs. Such a system will significantly accelerate the development of the entrepreneurial environment and the country's innovative economy," he remarked.

During the second panel discussion, participants addressed the role of women in developing a mentoring culture and the impact of digital technologies on disseminating expert knowledge.

Analysis

The development of the MicroMentor platform reflects a global trend shifting away from exclusively financial business support toward comprehensive entrepreneurial guidance. International practice shows that access to experienced mentors often has just as significant an impact on the success of startups and small businesses as preferential lending or state subsidies.

For Uzbekistan, where the ecosystem of innovative entrepreneurship is actively evolving, digital mentoring is becoming a vital element of business support infrastructure. It allows entrepreneurs from the regions to receive consultations from world-class experts regardless of geographical location, while also promoting the spread of contemporary management practices.

Experts note that the further development of such platforms, along with their integration into the activities of business incubators, technology parks, universities, and industry associations, could significantly improve the quality of entrepreneurial projects, accelerate the commercialization of innovations, and strengthen the competitiveness of Uzbekistan's small and medium-sized businesses in both domestic and international markets.