On December 12–13, Tashkent hosted the final of the international program Digital Startup Awards, where the most promising startups in the region met on one platform. 22 projects reached the final of the competition, and four of them represented Uzbekistan. One of the main discoveries was the GovTech startup HGT, which was recognized as one of the most active and promising participants and took second place.
The HGT team received a prize of 25,000 US dollars for developing a digital system for secure and transparent utility payments. The solution simplifies the interaction of citizens with government services and makes payment for services more convenient. The winner of the competition was the Kazakhstani startup Multicode, which received 40,000 US dollars for a SaaS platform with artificial intelligence for freight car operators. Third place and 15,000 US dollars went to the Georgian fintech project Telagri, focused on simplifying lending in the agricultural sector.
A separate award in the "Best Women's Startup" category was received by the MedTech platform MamaSpace from Kyrgyzstan with a prize of 10,000 US dollars. In total, more than 1,000 applications were submitted for participation in the 2025 program, and the total prize fund was 1 million dollars. The final featured projects from Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkmenistan, Mongolia and Uzbekistan, which once again emphasized the role of Tashkent as one of the key centers of the region's startup ecosystem.