AK Capital is a venture advisory and founder-education firm in Tashkent that connects founders, venture funds, universities, donors and corporates. Its founder, Azizbek Kurbonov, has sat on every side of the table: he built a startup and raised investment, led the $40.5M United Ventures fund as CEO, runs acceleration programmes, mentors founders and coaches their pitches. That is why each programme speaks the language of every side. It is delivered by a team of more than 10 coaches and mentors.
Development partners, universities, venture funds and accelerators across Uzbekistan's ecosystem.
Venture ecosystem programmes: training of trainers for universities and founder materials in Uzbek
Judge, Star Venture programme
Mentor and coach for eco-industry startup teams
Advisor; pre-acceleration with Turin Polytechnic (4 startups funded) and AgriTech investment readiness
Partner of the Taqdimot accelerator
Accelerator for the pitch show: 100 founders, $2M+ raised
Startup-as-thesis programme, now in its second year
Every programme connects a classroom or a cohort to the real venture market: funds as judges, investors as mentors, and a demo day where money can actually move.
Incubation and acceleration inside the university
Programmes built around a university's faculties, students and curriculum, ending in a demo day in front of active investors.
Venture ecosystem programmes
Design and delivery of entrepreneurship programmes for development partners and government, with local delivery capacity and materials in Uzbek.
Deal flow and market entry
Help for local and international funds to find investable founders early and to position themselves in Central Asia.
Executive education and trainings
Master classes and multi-day programmes for C-level teams on growth, scaling and innovation, with international faculty.
From idea to investment the road can get bumpy. We keep founders moving regardless.
Our processWe meet your team and agree who the programme is for and what success means: investments made, founders trained, a course built into the curriculum.
We build the curriculum around your audience and line up mentors from our team of 10+ coaches, plus investors to judge the final results.
Cohort sessions, one-to-one mentoring and field visits to companies, venture funds and government agencies.
Founders pitch to active investors. We follow up by matching startups with funds, corporates and international partners.
Funds compete not for the best deals, but to find projects worth investing in at all.
Azizbek Kurbonov · The Tech, 2026
Programmes designed and delivered by Azizbek Kurbonov and the AK Capital team with partners in Uzbekistan's venture ecosystem.
An intensive course that teaches founders to build and deliver an investor pitch: the investor deck, storytelling, types of funds and fundraising strategy, and handling due diligence questions. Run with IT Park Uzbekistan and the StartupBase platform; three batches completed by mid-2025. Spot.uz announcement
Accelerator that prepares founders for Taqdimot, Uzbekistan's startup pitch show, supported by Aloqa Ventures. Founders work on their business model, deck and investor Q&A before pitching on air.
Pre-acceleration programme for students at Turin Polytechnic University in Tashkent, organised, coordinated and mentored by Azizbek Kurbonov. Yoshlar Ventures invested in four of the resulting startups, and the university invested directly alongside the fund, a first for Uzbekistan's higher-education system.
Fourth-year students build a startup over the full academic year. Final assessment comes from active players in Uzbekistan's venture market, and the result counts toward the students' diplomas. Designed with the university's dean; the pilot year is complete and the second year is under way.
Ecosystem development work with the United Nations Development Programme in Uzbekistan, including Training of Trainers for universities and education materials for founders in the Uzbek language.
Investment-readiness programme run with Yoshlar Ventures for promising agritech projects from regions across Uzbekistan.
A 12-week Level 6 university course taught by Azizbek Kurbonov, with guest lecturers from finance and international retail.
An intensive course that teaches founders to build and deliver an investor pitch: the investor deck, storytelling, types of funds and fundraising strategy, and handling due diligence questions. Run with IT Park Uzbekistan and the StartupBase platform; three batches completed by mid-2025.
Founder & CEO, AK Capital · Advisor, Yoshlar Ventures · Tashkent
Azizbek Kurbonov (Азизбек Курбонов, Azizbek Qurbonov) is a Tashkent-based entrepreneur, venture advisor and educator. He has worked on both sides of the venture deal: as a founder who raised investment from local and international funds, and as the CEO of a venture fund.
He co-founded Sug'urta Bozor, the first insurance marketplace in Uzbekistan, which reached 500,000 users in 12 months and raised USD 220,000 from a local venture fund. In 2025 he became CEO of United Ventures, a USD 40.5 million venture fund founded by seven state-owned banks of Uzbekistan, where he developed the fund's investment policy.
Today he leads AK Capital, advises Yoshlar Ventures, and teaches founders and students across Uzbekistan. He has trained or advised more than 500 founders and coached 100+ startups for Taqdimot and Uzcombinator. He speaks at regional events including INMerge Innovation Summit (Baku), StartupStan Summit and ICT Week Uzbekistan.
BSc in Economics, Westminster International University in Tashkent (2018) · Venture Growth Program, Cornell SC Johnson College of Business · Strategy Executive Program, Yale School of Management (2026) · Study UK Alumni Award · Winner, TikTok Startup Academy pitch competition (2023)
Columns on venture education, fundraising and strategy for Central Asian founders and executives.
Press coverage and speaking appearances in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan.
Short answers to the questions universities, donors and funds ask before a first call.
AK Capital is a venture advisory and founder-education firm based in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. It designs and runs incubation, acceleration and investment-readiness programmes for universities, development partners, venture funds and corporate clients. Its legal entity is AZARI TS IMPEX LLC.
UNDP (venture ecosystem programmes), EBRD (Azizbek Kurbonov was a judge in the Star Venture programme), GIZ (mentoring and coaching eco-industry startup teams), Yoshlar Ventures (advisor), Aloqa Ventures and the Taqdimot accelerator, TEAM University, Turin Polytechnic University in Tashkent and IT Park Uzbekistan.
Azizbek Kurbonov, former CEO of the United Ventures fund, advisor to Yoshlar Ventures, co-founder of the insurtech startup Sug'urta Bozor and author of the course The Art of The Pitch.
No. AK Capital is an advisory and education firm. It works alongside venture funds such as Yoshlar Ventures and Aloqa Ventures to prepare founders for investment, but it does not manage an investment fund.
Turin Polytechnic University in Tashkent, where a pre-acceleration programme led to investments in four startups by Yoshlar Ventures and the university itself, and TEAM University, where students build a startup as part of their final year.
Yes. AK Capital runs venture ecosystem programmes with UNDP in Uzbekistan and delivers training of trainers, investment-readiness programmes and founder materials in Uzbek for development partners.
A course created by Azizbek Kurbonov that teaches founders to build an investor deck, tell their story, choose the right type of investor and answer due diligence questions. More than 500 founders across Uzbekistan have taken it.
Uzbek, Russian and English.
No. AK Capital in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, is not affiliated with companies named AK Capital in other countries.
Message Azizbek on LinkedIn with a short description of your organisation, the audience and the timeline. We reply within two working days.
[ Let's talk ] Opens LinkedIn · or email