2024, May 10
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NU Alumі at Stanford: BioTech Startup Selected by StartX
2024, May 10
Share this articleGetting into the global Silicon Valley community is happening under the signed Memorandum of Cooperation between NU and StartX.
Three startups from Central Asia have become part of one of the most innovative communities in the world—Stanford University. Among them is Kazakhstani Arlan Biotech, a startup by NU alumni Bolat Sultankulov and Dauken Seitkali, which has been successfully selected for the prestigious Stanford StartX Accelerator.
StartX is one of the world's strongest communities. It has raised three decacorns and 16 unicorns, and the total valuation of all community members has reached $26 billion. Members receive lifetime access to mentorship, networking, and personalized training to accelerate growth. Getting into the global Silicon Valley community was made possible by the Memorandum of Cooperation signed in 2022 between the NU and StartX, together with NU's advanced innovation and research environment. NU Astana Business Campus and Jas Ventures continuously seek new startup candidates for initial selection.
At the heart of this success story is Bolat Sultankulov, a NU alumnus who earned his PhD in biomedical engineering. Dauken Seytkali, cofounder, graduated from NU's School of Engineering and Digital Sciences in 2017. The NU Social Development Fund, Young Researchers Alliance, and Jas Ventures provided crucial financial support to their startup. Previously, Dauken Seitkali benefited from NU's innovation cluster, NURIS, which accelerated his journey.
“During the acceleration, I gained a lot of business thinking and marketing knowledge, and I got a lot of help with networking and resources. I met biotechnologist Bolat Sultankulov, who has a similar startup that is developing nanobodies with the help of AI. We decided to jointly develop Arlan Biotech - an artificial intelligence platform for generating nanobodies. Participating in the StartX Summer Batch is a cool opportunity for us to prove ourselves in the States and scale our project there. AI in biology is a hot topic, and we want to prove ourselves by developing Generative AI to design new nanobodies and antibodies. We have the largest Data Set for AI training, and we hope to succeed in the States and Stanford soon and take the startup to the next level,” said Dauken Seitkali.
With acceleration experiences in Dubai and Silkway Accelerator in Astana Hub under their belt, the team is setting its sights high. Their ambition is to rank among the world's top 5 AI companies in biotechnology, leveraging their expertise to aid pharmaceutical companies in developing drugs for autoimmune and cancer diseases.
“We are delighted to have passed StartX; being at Stanford and going through an internationally recognized accelerator program is a great honour. We are grateful to ABC and NU for providing such an opportunity to all startups in Kazakhstan and us. It is a great honour and a great responsibility for us. We hope to represent Kazakhstan at the highest level,” said Bolat Sultankulov.
Kyrgyz startup MyStory, which uses artificial intelligence to create personalized books by exclusive order, and Kazakhstan's GlobalArt.AI, an AI-powered library of global artists, also were selected to the StartX Summer Batch.
