The State Fund for Development of Information Technologies supports the development of startup ecosystem

A meeting on the topic of “Strengthening the role of business incubators, accelerators, and other support programs in the development of startup ecosystem” was held at the State Fund for Development of Information Technologies under the Ministry of Communications and High Technologies of the Republic of Azerbaijan within the framework of the “Startup Azerbaijan” project.

The main purpose of the meeting was expansion of startup activities in the country, development of innovative projects and exchange of opinions on problems existing in this area. The participants of the meeting also discussed such issues as commercialization of startups, creation of an investors club and protection of interests of investors providing financial assistance to IT projects, startup culture, business incubators and stimulation of teaching-training staff at accelerators, etc.

The Fund's Executive Director Elchin Zeynalov provided the gathering with information about the purpose of the meeting and support rendered to startups by the Fund.  Representatives of Startup Azerbaijan Movement, High Technologies Park, Qafqaz University Technopark,  Business Incubator of Architecture and Construction University, “NextStep” Innovation Center of  Azerbaijan State University of Oil and Industry, Barama Innovation Center of Azercell, “AppLab” Innovative Mobile Development Center of Bakcell, Baku Business Factory and other members of startup ecosystem delivered presentations at the meeting.  Towards the end of the meeting, concrete proposals for the development of startup projects were discussed.

Note that the purpose of the State Fund for Development of İnformation Technologies is to assist in implementation of the state policy in the field of Information and Communications Technologies of Azerbaijan Republic, to support entrepreneurship, to promote innovation and R & D projects and to develop a modern infrastructure, to render financial support to small and medium enterprises, to attract domestic and foreign investment.

So far, 3 grant competitions have been conducted by the Fund.  A total of 461 projects were  presented to the Fund within these competitions. After passing through all the stages of the competitions, 62 of these projects were declared the winners by the Supervisory Board of the Fund. More than 860 000 manat were allocated to the winners of the grant competitions to help young entrepreneurs realize their innovative ideas.  43% of the winners of the grant competitions were persons less than 29 years old. 
 

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