Baku, Azerbaijan, May 27
By Aysham Rustamova – Trend:
The investors are interested in startups, Director of Azerbaijan’s Innoland Incubation and Acceleration Center Mammad Karimov told Trend.
“We were able to attract about 30 investors to the projects within a short period,” he added.
"One of the goals of opening Innoland center was to support young people full of initiatives, to organize the agitation of innovative ideas in the field of export,” Karimov said. “Several startups have already managed to enter the international markets, including the markets of the US and Europe.”
“Presently, we intend to present several startups in South Korea and the Middle Eastern countries,” he added. “Local investors have repeatedly been invited to the so-called Demo day - demonstration days. There are already about 30. A third of investors have already started to invest in startups both in our center and outside it. They cooperate with international organizations in this sphere.”
“We thoroughly work with foreign investors,” he said. “The center was opened by the president in November 2018 and launched its activity in December 2018. We supported about 30 startups within our programs during a short period. This is mainly incubation and acceleration.”
“Moreover, about 40 international and local events have been organized over the past five months,” Karimov said. “Besides the residents, more than 1,000 people interested in local innovations have participated in those events. About 20 foreign experts have been involved. They give recommendations on expansion and development of local startups."
He added that the Innoland Incubation and Acceleration Center is implementing joint projects with the government.
"Our joint programs are being implemented with the ministry of agriculture, ministry of education, AzerGold and several other structures,” Karimov stressed.
“We are working on several new projects,” he said. “Not only state structures, but also the private sector shows great interest in the projects. We are cooperating with Bakcell, Next Step, BP, Tech Academy and several other private structures."
“The number of innovations is growing and expanding in the country through the effective assistance of the state,” Karimov said. “The ASAN service is greatly involved in it by choosing an efficient, sustainable model.”
He stressed the vital need to expand this center.
"We intend to expand the scope of services,” Karimov said. “The number of appeals is great. The interest in this sphere is growing from day to day. To meet the demand, new opportunities promising positive results will be offered."