A club of investors will be set up in Azerbaijan soon to finance start-up projects, Azerbaijani Transport, Communications and High Technologies Minister Ramin Guluzade said.
Guluzade made the remarks at a meeting with the winners of the 6th grant competition held by the State Fund for Development of Information Technologies in Baku Aug. 17.
“All efforts are directed for Azerbaijani start-ups to be always in search of alternative financial sources,” he said.
“To date, 903 innovative projects have been sent within the grant contests being held by the State Fund for Development of Information Technologies, of which 117 projects have been provided with grants,” he said. “Among the implemented projects 20 have been commercialized. I think that the grants that have been already issued, play an integral role in building start-up business.”
“Thus, Azerbaijan financed more than 100 start-up projects, selected by the State Fund for Development of Information Technologies through grant contests,” the minister said.
Five projects were selected within the recent 6th grant contest.
According to the decision of the Supervisory Council of the State Fund for Development of Information Technologies, a grant in the amount of 29,000 manats were delivered for “Virtual Surgery” project, 16,000 manats – for the “Ready for School” project, 15,000 manats – for “Setti” project, 14,000 manats – for joinb2b.com project and 11,000 manats – for the “Smart toys” project.
In general, 149 projects were sent for the contest, of which 138 projects were covered by the primary expertise. Moreover, comprehensive expertise covered 39 projects. As a result, the State Fund for Development of Information Technologies decided to finance five projects.
