SMB

We believe Azerbaijan’s socio-economic development is closely linked with entrepreneurship and its future development!

A seminar was conducted on the theme of "Transforming SMBs towards a Green Economy and Green Finance" 6 micro-enterpreneurs have been awarded with "Startup" certificates B2B business meetings were convened between Azerbaijani and Pakistani businessmen The representatives of KOBİA visited Saudia Arabia Meeting with women entrepreneurs in Sumgait "The program Karabakh SMBs” are set to extend in 2024 The conference devoted to ”Day of Enterpreneurs” held The meeting held between KOBİA and Federative Republic of Somalia Kenyan delegation became familiarized with the activities of the "Baku SMB House" The next meeting of the subgroup focusing on environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) standards was recently held.

Smart system developed by an Azerbaijani startup applied abroad 22.02.23

As the startups are deemed the most successful cases of projects further accelerating the development of innovation in the economy at present, Azerbaijan is seeking to build its economy in this direction, in other words, to establish a "startup economy".

One of the most important factors for the development of the startup industry is the establishment of a rebust support mechanism for the development of innovative entrepreneurship by the state.

So far, 86 "Startup" certificates have been issued in Azerbaijan

Today, Azerbaijan is a strong supporter of the start-up industry aimed at the development of micro and small entrepreneurship. Due to this support, business entities granted a "startup certificate" are exempted from profit and income tax on their income from innovation activity for a period of 3 years from the date of receiving the certificate pursuant to the Tax Code. The state's support of the startup industry have an impact on the increasing number of "Startup" certificate recipients. Since the date of the first certificates - May 2021, 86 "Startup" certificates have been granted to its recipients.

The Startup Development Center operates in "Baku SMB House" for startups, SMB development centers of the Small and Medium Business Development Agency (KOBİA) conduct various trainings on innovative business, and organize startup grant competitions. KOBİA runs grant competitions of funding education, science, research and support projects on the development of micro, small and medium enterprises.

Any legal person belonging to the SMB entities or a natural person engaged in entrepreneurial activity without establishing a legal person reserves the right to take part in the competition. The amount of funding for each project is up to 20,000 manats and receives non-cash payment.

Certificates and grants issued by the Agency include areas such as e-commerce, e-governance, e-payment, transport-logistics, e-agriculture, digital solutions for business, etc., which are the key components of the digital economy.

Companies applying a smart system save up to 50% on their logistics costs

Tural Zakaryazadeh, the founder and director of "Wasco Lab" LLC and "WTEAM Inc" established business activities in Azerbaijan based on two different startup projects. One of his startup projects is about building a smart waste management system.

Last year, "Wasco Lab" LLC was granted the amount of 19,345 AZN from KOBİA for researching the opportunities of developing a smart collection, processing and management system of waste by means of "Smart City concept" - IoT devices in the liberated territories.

Companies benefiting from Wasco Lab's smart system are capable of both saving up to 50% on their logistics costs and reducing CO2 emissions from garbage trucks by up to 45%. This smart waste management system developed by the Azerbaijani company is already being used in some foreign countries.

T. Zakaryazadeh has been the architect of various local and global startup projects since 2017. In 2019, by means of the device he invented, he was accepted into the "Brinc" program, which is the world's best startup acceleration program. During the 6-week program in the Kingdom of Bahrain, the device developed under the name of "Made in Azerbaijan" was launched in Azerbaijan, as well as in the Middle East market.

T. Zakaryazadeh notes that the technology developed by them allows municipalities and waste collection companies to perform waste collection and management in a more optimal way. Special programmed devices are placed in waste containers. By the virtue of these devices, it is possible to determine when and how much the waste containers are filled, what kind of waste is inside, the temperature level inside the container, the area where the container is located, etc. Once the data is sent to the control panel, the municipalities and waste collection companies know the places with more and less waste, and based on this information, they can send the machines to the area where the containers are full: "Normally, if there are 500 containers around the city, the municipalities or executive powers are obliged to visit all 500 containers. Our technology only offers to go to the area of the container that is full. In this regard, fuel consumption is significantly saved."

T. Zakaryazadeh stated that the smart system also provides information on waste sorting. The system can track what type of waste is produced in which area and how much of it is recycled. However, for the collection of these data, it is required to have the necessary infrastructure.

He emphasized that the chambers placed in the containers are produced in Azerbaijan: "Sensors are brought from China, all other processes - preparation of the body of the device and software are performed in Azerbaijan."

Foreign investment worth 150,000 US dollars invested in the project

The project owner also added that the smart system developed by them is applied in Azerbaijan not only on the campus of the National Aviation Academy, but also abroad - in Bahrain, Nigeria and Lebanon. The project has attracted 150,000 US dollars foreign investment with a valuation of 2 million US dollars. The company is currently seeking to realize this project in Europe as well: "Companies working in the USA, Türkiye, and Europe also implement optimal waste management with a smart system. We have developed a different kind of technology. The technology and the methods we apply, the data we provide to the software are completely different. Our competitors install chambers in waste containers, and with the chamber, they can measure the level of fullness of the waste containers. We use sensors that allow longer, more comfortable measurements, and we can transmit more data on the platform."

Another start-up project by T. Zakaryazadeh is about the establishment of a platform by the company "WTEAM Inc", which allows remote companies to communicate more conveniently. Similar to Zoom, this platform allows you to have video and audio meetings online. More than 1,000 companies in 20 countries currently use this platform.

https://vergiler.az/news/economy/22840.html