Central Asia’s VC Leapfrog and the Southeast Asia Corridor

Episode 3: Central Asia VC Leapfrog and Southeast Asia CorridorGuest: Ruslan Rakymbay, Investment Director, Quest VenturesRuslan Rakymbay is an Investment Director at Quest Ventures, a top venture capital fund in Asia. He works closely with startups to accelerate their growth through a combination of acceleration services and programmes. He is also responsible for market access initiatives for key markets in Central Asia. Ruslan was a founding member of QazAngels, Kazakhstan’s pioneering angel investment network, Ruslan has played a key role in fostering the country’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. Prior to this, he served as the regional CEO of Primus Power, a US Silicon Valley-based energy storage technology company. His contributions to the energy sector have earned him prestigious accolades, including the Clean Tech Transformer award from the Islamic Development Bank and the New Energy Leader award from the Asian Development Bank. Ruslan is also an active member of the Project Management Institute in Kazakhstan. Ruslan is a Bolashak Presidential Scholarship recipient, a certified Project Management Professional (PMP), and received an MSc in Energy Economics from the University of Dundee, UK. Ruslan speaks Mandarin Chinese and spent two years at CUEB and BLCU in Beijing, China. He is also an International Law Specialist (MA-equivalent) from the Al-Farabi Kazakh National University. For leisure, he enjoys traveling, diving (Ruslan is PADI certified scuba-diver), cycling and reading.What We CoverQuest Ventures’ ecosystem build: Kazakhstan Digital Accelerator, educating VC instruments and mechanics to regulators/AIFC, and Astana Hub partnerships, ecosystem.​Cross-border bridges: Central Asia (Kazakhstan/Uzbekistan/Kyrgyzstan/Tajikistan) as one market, expanding to Vietnam/Philippines/Singapore via SEA events and portfolio companies.​LP evolution: From zero GPs to 30+ in Central Asia, M&A exits now, IPOs possible in 5 years (SEA/HK/Nasdaq).​AI tailwinds: Kazakhstan AI code, supercomputers for startups, AI as scaling tool for all models.​Founder playbook: “Live there first” for expansions (e.g., 1-month India test saved $1M burn).​2026–27 outlook: More AI startups, Quest raising Central Asia fund ($1M A-rounds), Vietnam as key bridge.​Timestamps00:02 Intro: Ruslan’s bio, QazAngels founding, Quest Ventures role.​02:18 2019 entry: 2–5 deals/year to 32 investments, 6 exits via accelerator.​10:54 LP shift: 10+ Kazakhstan GPs, 30+ Central Asia, no more SAFE education needed.​23:00 Cross-border: Central Asia as unit, SEA expansions (US/Philippines/Europe).​25:25 Founder blind spots: “Live in market 1 month” before scaling.​30:00 AI infra: 2 supercomputers (free GPUs), AI code, 2026–27 AI surge.​Quest Ventures LinksOfficial siteRuslan Rakymbay profile: Link​Quest Ventures: LinkedIn ​ This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit emergingforward.substack.com