A group of venture capital investors with participation of UZCARD Ventures, IT-Park Investment, business angel club “UzAngels” closed an investment round in fintech startup IMAN for more than $200K. The total amount of the investment round is $1 million including foreign investors from Singapore, Kazakhstan and other countries.
In this regard, UZCARD Ventures announces an international conference “Venture Capital: Illusion or Reality in Uzbekistan – IMAN case“, with the participation of IMAN startup founders, international and local venture capitalists who took part in the investment deal.
During the conference, speakers will talk about the experience of investing in the startup IMAN, structuring the deal, further plans for scaling the startup and will hold a panel session on the legal aspects of investing in Uzbekistan.
“We see a rapidly growing demand in the local and international market for Islamic finance instruments and by investing in IMAN startup we will comprehensively help their expansion to meet the population’s need for alternative financial instruments” – commented Farrukh Ziyaev, CEO of UZCARD.
“Funding the IMAN project at this stage is not a way to raise profits or benefits. We believe that this startup has all chances to become a global project and cover many foreign countries. We want to support the team and their idea,” commented Farhod Ibragimov, Director of IT Park Uzbekistan.
“The IMAN team in a short period of time showed good results and traction increasing the number of active users to 50 thousand. This investment deal is also significant because it is the first time that a local venture fund has invested in a local startup, as well as the fact that a group of private individual investors-members of UzAngels club have structured a syndicated venture deal according to international standards”. – commented Dilshod Zufarov, Managing Partner of UZCARD Ventures.
“From the moment the company was founded, it was important for me and my partner to position IMAN as an Uzbek product. Uzbekistan is a key strategic market for us and success here will serve as a significant platform for scaling up in other countries. That is why we are very happy that in addition to our main international investors (Battery Road Digital Holdings and Tesla Capital) we were able to get the support of strong partners from Uzbekistan, such as UZCARD Ventures, UzAngels and IT Park.
First of all, this investment will help us scale our technology to easily integrate with retail partners across Uzbekistan, both online and offline. Secondly, we will be able to more actively develop partnerships with merchants across all sectors. Finally, this investment will allow us to start expanding into new Muslim-dominated markets in 2023.” – commented Rustama Rakhmatov, Founder and CEO of IMAN
Program of the event
| TAS time | Duration | Theme | Speaker |
| 15:00-15:05 | 5 minutes. | Moderator, opening remarks | Dilshod Zufarov – Managing Partner, UZCARD Ventures |
| 15:05-15:10 | 5 minutes. | Welcoming remarks | Farrukh Ziyaev – General Director, UZCARD |
| 15:10-15:15 | 5 minutes. | Welcome speech | Farhod Ibragimov – Director, IT-PARK |
| 15:15-15:30 | 15 minutes |
IMAN startup presentation Current metrics and scaling plans |
Rustam Rakhmatov – Founder and CEO, IMAN
Mark Zubov – Founder and CFO, IMAN |
| 15:30-15:45 | 15 minutes | Presentation of Tesla Capital fund (investor in IMAN) | Olzhas Zhienkulov – Managing Partner, Tesla Capital |
| 15:45-16:00 | 15 minutes | About UMAY Angels Club (investor in IMAN) | Mirat Akhmetsadykov – founder of UMAY Angels Club |
| 16:00-16:10 | 10 minutes | About IT-Park Investment (investor in IMAN) | Jahongir Rajabov – Deputy Director, IT-Park |
| 16:10-16:20 | 10 minutes | About UzAngels club (syndicate of investors in IMAN) | Anvar Irchaev – Co-founder and member of UzAngels Club
Amir Maksadi – Co-founder of UzAngels Club |
| 16:20-16:50 | 30 minutes | Panel Session: Legal Aspects of Structuring Venture Capital Transactions in the Republic of Uzbekistan | Ulugbek Gulyamov – Senior Associate, Centil Law
Mirat Akhmetsadykov – Founder of UMAY Angels Club Amir Maksadi – Co-founder of UzAngels Club and other lawyers involved in the IMAN deal.
Moderator: Dilshod Zufarov – Managing Partner, UZCARD Ventures |
| 16:50-17:00 | 10 minutes | Q&A | – |
| 17:00-17:10 | 5 minutes | Completion of the event | Moderator, Dilshod Zufarov – Managing Partner, UZCARD Ventures |
The conference will be held on the site of UZCARD corporate accelerator on April 7 at 15:00 TAS (GMT+5).
Participation in the conference is free of charge, registration is required: https://forms.gle/cwxJ9C1XBxYgGxho7