As part of the GSMA M360 Eurasia 2025 international conference — hosted for the first time in Tashkent — ten promising startups presented their ventures in a dedicated pitch session organized with the support of the Ministry of Digital Technologies of the Republic of Uzbekistan and IT Park Uzbekistan. The participating startups, each with a minimum viable product (MVP) and initial sales, competed for the top prize: an opportunity to attend 4YFN (Four Years From Now) in Barcelona, including a dedicated exhibition booth on the GSMA platform.

The GSMA, convening over 750 mobile operators and technology companies worldwide, organizes the M360 event series to foster digital transformation across regions. M360 Eurasia in Tashkent served as a platform to showcase innovative solutions and facilitate collaboration between startups, investors, corporations, and public sector institutions.

The session featured startups from verticals such as fintech, healthtech, edtech, AI, and IoT, with participants representing both Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan — demonstrating strong potential for global market entry. A total of 55 applications were submitted, with 10 startups selected as finalists for the pitch session.

The judging panel included Alex Sinclair, CTO of GSMA; Konstantin Savin, expert at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU); and Edele Sheehan, Head of Marketing and Executive Communications at GSMA.

As part of the initiative, IT Park Ventures established a prize fund of $40,000 in the form of SAFE investments. The winning startup received $25,000, with second and third place awarded $10,000 and $5,000, respectively.

The first prize was awarded to Fonus, a team developing a secure video application for children featuring educational and cultural content. The team earned the opportunity to showcase its solution at 4YFN — one of the world’s premier exhibitions in telecommunications and technology, held annually in Barcelona and attended by tens of thousands of professionals from more than 180 countries. Furthermore, Fonus received $25,000 in SAFE investment.

Daryn Online secured second place and was awarded $10,000 in SAFE investment to support the development of its platform for online exam preparation and academic tutoring for school-age students.

Third place went to Exode.biz, a team that presented a SaaS platform for launching and scaling online schools and educational courses. The team received $5,000 in SAFE investment.

The hosting of GSMA M360 Eurasia in Uzbekistan, along with the active participation of local startups in global innovation initiatives, underscores the country's growing recognition as a regional hub for digital transformation. IT Park Uzbekistan remains committed supporting entrepreneurs and fostering an enabling environment for the international expansion of domestic technological solutions.