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Online platform created by the young entrepreneur to enter the international market 02.11.23

As in the developed countries around the globe, various support mechanisms are deployed to realize startup projects in Azerbaijan. The support provided by the state in the form of the Small and Medium Business Development Agency (KOBİA) assists in enhancing the role of start-up projects in building an innovative economy to increase, and the project initiators to succeed faster.

KOBİA issues a "Startup" certificate to micro and small businesses, exempting them from profit and income tax on their income obtained from innovation activities for a period of 3 years. The Agency allocates grants for supporting local start-up projects, carries out various measures to enable their access to global markets and introduce their projects to local and foreign investors. Konul Guliyeva, co-founder and executive director of Safavy LLC, is one of the young persons who received the Startup certificate for the implementation of an innovative project in the education system - the creation of the first video format online local education platform in Azerbaijan.

According to K. Guliyeva, at the time the safavy.org platform was created, there were practically no online education platforms in Azerbaijan: "We came up with the idea of creating this platform amid pandemic, we sought to be an accessible platform with vast resources in our country. According to the results of our survey, young people seeking to improve themselves in career ladder fail to find resources in the Azerbaijani language on the Internet, the prices for benefiting from some resources are too high, and hence it does accrue financial benefits to them. After creating this platform, we started focusing more on providing training that is relevant to market needs. We invited trainers and teachers who are professionals in their field to our platform. At this point, we realized that not only young people, but also teachers need support. They need technical support such as filming and lesson preparation to facilitate their lessons. We have expanded our activities by meeting the needs of both parties”.

The entrepreneur pointed out the fact that the safavy.org platform develops content in line with the needs of the local market, unlike global platforms. Contents on global platforms are developed in accordance with international standards established for developed countries: "However, each country has its own rules and procedures. We offer textbooks and materials on information technologies based on the expertise of local experts. Young people who attend these courses can draw a road map for themselves in any field of their interest".

Noting that they are planning to expand the platform, K. Guliyeva added that they want to improve the current system in the local market for now. Nevertheless, our next target is the B2B (Business to business) market of Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Türkiye: "We aspire to create contents in the language of the countries I have listed that meet the needs of the local market. According to our market research, accessible materials are mainly in Russian and English. In countries like Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, the number of experts in this field is very few. We should consider the fact that everyone aspires to tap into online courses and materials in their own language. We have a ready-made model and platform. That is why, we intend to create such a platform for them".

The young entrepreneur stated that they seek to establish business in the mentioned target markets in the next two years: "safavy.org platform has been offering its products to the market for 2 years, but we have done this with very limited resources. Our platform has already started acquiring some funds from sales and we are reinvesting our income. If we can invest enough, we will be able to deliver our improved platform to those markets in a shorter time. According to the new assessment, 170 thousand dollars investment is required to implement our project. I should also point out that there are also investors who interested in the project”.

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