• Demo day attracted enterprise interest from Petronas, Alibaba Cloud & GSI
• Programme supports Malaysia’s push to become a gateway for Central Asian tech companies

Big Sky Capital, in partnership with GUIDE and supported by Astana Hub, the largest international innovation cluster in Central Eurasia and a government-linked agency under Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Digital Development and AI, has wrapped up a two-month SEA Enterprise Technology Launchpad programme for B2B enterprise and industrial-tech startups and scaleups from Central Asia.

The programme concluded with a demo day hosted by Gobi Partners at Jelawang Capital’s Kuala Lumpur office, where startups presented their solutions to enterprise organisations including Petronas, Alibaba Cloud and PT Gunung Samudera Internasional (GSI), one of Indonesia’s largest mining companies.

The initiative forms part of a broader effort by Astana Hub, Big Sky Capital and GUIDE to establish a Southeast Asia-Central Asia Innovation Hub based in Malaysia, positioning the country as a soft-landing destination for enterprise and industrial technology companies entering the Southeast Asian market.

Organisers said the programme reflects Malaysia’s growing role in facilitating cross-border technology collaboration by providing startups from emerging markets with a structured pathway into Southeast Asia’s enterprise and industrial sectors.

The first cohort featured:

• Rock Rigid – AI-powered production optimisation solutions for the oil and gas industry
• BEST Vision – Computer vision technology for workplace safety and industrial operations
• Onay Oqu – An AI-powered digital education platform
• RoadOne AI – AI-driven fleet management and fuel fraud prevention technology
• TASS Vision – Computer vision-based retail analytics, presented virtually

Tanat Uskembayev, co-CEO of Astana Hub, outlined Kazakhstan’s national innovation ecosystem and Astana Hub’s role in supporting technology companies as they expand internationally. He said Astana Hub has become a key enabler for startups by providing the incentives, resources and programmes that help entrepreneurs grow both locally and internationally.

Adil Nurgozhin, managing partner of Big Sky Capital, highlighted Central Asia’s rapidly developing technology ecosystem and the growing momentum of innovation across the region, as well as its potential to produce globally competitive technology companies.

Meanwhile, Neil Cheong of GUIDE said initiatives such as the SEA Enterprise Technology Launchpad help connect international startups with Southeast Asian corporates, creating opportunities for technology commercialisation, knowledge exchange and deeper cross-border innovation across Asia.

With enterprise organisations already engaging directly with participating startups, the programme provides an early indication of demand for Central Asian enterprise technologies in Southeast Asia and supports broader efforts to build stronger innovation and investment links between the two regions.