How FosterBridge and Qazaq Creative Plan to Take Kazakh Startups Global

FosterBridge’s collaboration with Qazaq Creative is meant to give Kazakhstan’s creative startups a clearer path to overseas markets. FosterBridge announced the cooperation on September 2; Qazaq Creative is a platform launched under Kazakhstan’s government-financed Creative Industries Development Fund.1 The opportunity is access to relevant partners and investors—not a promise of funding or sales.

What support could look like

The proposed approach is to identify promising creative businesses, help them navigate available public support, prepare them to pitch and exhibit internationally, and introduce them to prospective commercial partners and investors. That sequence matters: a conference appearance is more useful when a startup arrives with a clear proposition and meetings suited to its business.

The available sources establish the collaboration’s international-market aim, but do not set out verified selection criteria, cohort sizes, funding commitments or which costs any government assistance would cover.12 Those details will determine how accessible the program is to founders.

Why FosterBridge’s existing connections matter

FosterBridge board chairman Park Jin-hyun has described the difficulty some startups face in finding a route to global opportunities despite having expertise or technology.1 The collaboration is designed to address that access problem. On the Kazakh side, Qazaq Creative’s announcement identifies Creative Industries Development Fund board chairman Yerlan Kanalimov as a signatory to the cooperation memorandum.2

There is a naming distinction: Korean reporting describes the initiative as a FosterBridge–Qazaq Creative collaboration, while Qazaq Creative names South Korea’s The Garrison as its memorandum partner.12 The connection is supported by The Garrison’s account that it launched FosterBridge and by an Osaka expo biography identifying The Garrison CEO Jaeyeong Park with FosterBridge.3923

FosterBridge has a relevant precedent. At its 2025 forum, it signed an agreement with Thailand’s Techsauce to develop cross-border startup programs and expand investment and business-matching channels.5 That shows the kind of network it is building; it does not establish that the Kazakhstan collaboration has already produced deals. Claims about a network of more than 50 venture-capital firms in 30 countries are not independently substantiated by the available sources.

Where Osaka fits—and where it does not

Global Startup EXPO 2026 is scheduled for October 5–7 in Osaka. Its six focus areas are biotech and healthcare, AI and advanced robotics, fusion energy, quantum technology, semiconductors and communications, and space.4546 The expo lists Jaeyeong Park as a FosterBridge ambassador, giving the platform another potential point of contact with international startups and investors.23

That does not mean Kazakh creative startups are confirmed to attend. Nor is a creative-industry startup automatically a fit for an expo centered on deep tech. The stronger test of this collaboration will be whether introductions lead to sustained partnerships, investment or international sales—not simply participation in more events.