Innovative industry: grants and venture capital

Omirzhan Tashimov, Deputy Chairman of the Management Board of the subsidiary of “Baiterek” Holding - National Agency for Technological Development (NATD) told about the development trends of venture capital and the innovative industry in the country in an interview with “Kazakhstanskaya Pravda”. Please find the most important facts based on his speech.

1. NATD provides grant financing of innovative business activity. Its essence is to provide easy money for projects related to the introduction of advanced foreign technologies, promotion of new domestic products and services to the market, as well as technological modernization of the enterprises. Today there are nine different types of grants.

2. The approach to the issuing grants process has been changed - phased principle of funding was replaced by an integral system of grant support for innovative projects.

3. The volume of state support for the grants reaches 200 million KZT from the total amount of the project commercialization. If earlier this amount was in the range of 5-10%, then today it has already reached 50%.

4. In general, from 2011 to 2017 NATD supported more than 300 projects worth over 12 billion KZT. This includes Almaty Fan Factory, which has been already supplying products to the world's largest technological companies, as well as “Kainar AKB” enterprise, which exports goods to many continents up to Africa.

5. Grant applicant for the development of industries can be any active business, which has been operating on the market for no longer than three years.

6. The decision on grants issuing undergoes a number of serious filters: detailed examination and analysis with the participation of industry specialists, representatives of NCE “Atameken”, centers for analysis and monitoring of projects that are both at the implementation stage and after.

7. The total amount of tax payments of companies supported by innovative grants significantly exceeds the total amount of state financial support provided by means of NATD.

8. The venture capital industry has gone through all the legislative steps. The next step is to create a business environment for the circulation of venture capital funds. The main task here is to stand out the potential customers of the venture capital market from the total mass of companies supported by NATD. For this purpose a mechanism has been set up to arrange technological brokering events, at which grant recipients and investors can be met. Work is also carried out at the level of business incubation.

Read the full interview here.