Silkroad Innovation Hub’s Road to Battlefield competition continues

The Road to Battlefield competition, organized by Silkroad Innovation Hub successful concern with TechCrunch, Freedom Holding, Astana Hub, IT Park Uzbekistan, is present successful its 2nd year. Its intent hasn’t changed since it launched: Give founders crossed Central Eurasia a nonstop way to TechCrunch Startup Battlefield 200 during this year’s Disrupt from October 13 – 15 successful San Francisco.

“For 2 years now, unneurotic with our partners, we’ve been organizing Road to TC Startup Battlefield to springiness founders successful our portion a nonstop enactment to the apical VCs and planetary ecosystems, 1 they didn’t person earlier astatine this scale,” said Asset Abdualiyev, laminitis and CEO of Silkroad Innovation Hub. “There’s a batch of endowment present the satellite hasn’t recovered yet, and that’s precisely who we’re looking for, founders and ideas from each country of the portion who haven’t had their moment.”

The program’s archetypal year, 2025, drew 485 applications from 27 countries, the largest startup transportation lawsuit the portion had seen astatine the time. Three startups came retired of it to correspond Central Eurasia connected the planetary stage: Polygraf AI (Azerbaijan/U.S.), Surfaice (Kazakhstan/U.S.), and Investbanq (Singapore/U.S.).

This year, applications jumped to 726 from 39 countries, which is up astir 50% successful submissions and a twelve much countries than past year. This is simply a grounds for the program, spanning Central Asia, the Caucasus, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and South Asia. Founders pitched online successful beforehand of 47 judges from 8 countries, drawn from apical VC firms, large tech hubs, and founders who’ve scaled their ain companies, alongside an AI judge, AI-Dana, arsenic autarkic jury.

What makes the contention worthy watching now, successful its 2nd year, is its trajectory. Central Eurasia is present producing 1 of the fastest-growing startup pipelines successful emerging markets, and the numbers backmost it up.

National rounds for Road to Battlefield 2026 ran online from July 6 to 20. Twenty-two startups came retired of it, and they’ll present caput to a determination last connected August 12. From there, judges volition constrictive the tract to 3 finalists who’ll correspond the portion astatine TechCrunch Startup Battlefield 200.

Meet the Road to Battlefield finalists

Those 22 finalists are MoliyAI (Uzbekistan), Sino AI (Uzbekistan), Deepen (Uzbekistan), Fermopolis (Uzbekistan), Oqim App (Uzbekistan), Cerberus (Uzbekistan), Soup (Kazakhstan), CortexAI (Kazakhstan), Scano (Kazakhstan), 4sell.ai (Kazakhstan), WeGlobal AI (Kazakhstan), ZhanCare.AI (Kazakhstan), Kaptın Kaptın (Türkiye), Pocket eSIM (Türkiye), SeaDar (Azerbaijan), Telagri (Georgia), Admyra (U.S.), Soulward (Kyrgyzstan), Suriy (Mongolia), MVSxAI (Qatar), Looq (Japan), and Defensive Pedal (Romania).

Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan each person six startups successful the determination final, a wide motion that these 2 present basal arsenic the region’s largest startup ecosystems.

“We’re seeing dependable maturation successful AI products, particularly from Kazakhstan and Central Eurasia, and that tracks precisely with our vision,” said Magzhan Madiyev, CEO of Astana Hub. “This advancement reflects the strengthening of our innovation ecosystem and the tremendous enactment being done crossed it. At Astana Hub, our ngo is to nurture the adjacent procreation of globally competitory founders acceptable to standard into markets similar the U.S., and it’s inspiring to spot galore of them instrumentality the stage, vie internationally, and determination 1 measurement person to the world’s starring startup stage.”

In fact, AI dominates the applicant pool: 609 of the 726 startups, astir 84%, are gathering AI products, underscoring however rapidly the exertion has go the default starting constituent for founders successful the region.

“For founders from Uzbekistan and crossed Central Eurasia, entering planetary markets is becoming portion of their strategy from the precise beginning, arsenic much startups physique products with the imaginable to vie and standard globally,” said Azamat Karamatov, CEO of IT Park Uzbekistan. “This reflects the region’s displacement toward a much connected and competitory innovation ecosystem. For IT Park Uzbekistan, the precedence is to fortify the pathways that link precocious imaginable startups with planetary investors, customers, expertise, and starring exertion ecosystems. Road to TechCrunch Startup Battlefield contributes to this effort by giving founders from our portion the accidental to enactment successful TechCrunch Disrupt and the Startup Battlefield signifier successful the U.S., summation planetary exposure, physique invaluable planetary connections, and prosecute straight with 1 of the world’s starring exertion markets.”

The competition’s youngest applicant is conscionable 14, and 89 of the 726 applicants, including 7 founders from Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, are nether 18. Most applicants are aboriginal stage, too: 41.6% astatine MVP and 38.6% pre-seed, with 14.7% astatine effect and 4.7% inactive astatine the thought stage.

Behind the contention is simply a wide web of determination partners, supported by starring determination innovation hubs and accelerators crossed Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, China, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Mongolia, Qatar, Tajikistan, Türkiye, and Uzbekistan: Accelerate Prosperity, Activat VC, Ardventure, Bilkent Cyberpark, Bilişim Vadisi, Caucasus Ventures, CEVF, Doha Business Consulting, Future Laboratory, Future Unicorns, Global Tech Weekend Tbilisi, Hello Tomorrow Türkiye, IT Park Dushanbe, IT Park Mongolia, Khan Tengri Innovation Hub, MOST, Nazarbayev University, SABAH Angels, SABAH Fund, Silkroad Angels, Sofia Tech Park, Startup Moldova, Stanbase, StartupCentrum, and Terricon Valley, with determination media enactment from TheTech.

This twelvemonth brought immoderate caller stakes to the table, too:

• An $100,000 concern prize pool, divided $50,000, $30,000, and $20,000 crossed the apical 3 finalists, is being funded jointly by Astana Hub Ventures, IT Park Ventures, and Silkroad Innovation Hub.
• The apical 3 winners volition get up to $100,000 successful OpenAI API credits divided the aforesaid way, portion the remainder of the Top 22 finalists volition each locomotion distant with $10,000 successful OpenAI API credits.

“We’ve been supporting the ecosystem from the precise beginning, and this twelvemonth is nary exception,” said Marlen Sikhayev, advisor to the president of Freedom Holding Corp. “What stands retired astir is however overmuch of it is being driven by AI, solutions built close present successful Kazakhstan and crossed our portion that are nary longer staying local. They’re being shown to the world, connected the aforesaid signifier arsenic the biggest names successful tech. That’s precisely what we acceptable retired to enactment erstwhile we backed this initiative, and it’s precisely what keeps america backing it.”

The 3 eventual winners volition besides get a afloat paid travel and accommodation to TechCrunch Startup Battlefield 200 successful San Francisco, on with entree to a web of much than 1,000 founders spanning 39 countries.