10 startups to watch from Mongolia

Mongolia is a market rarely covered by startup media, including Tech in Asia. When we embarked on our search for the best startups in this near-arctic country of just 3 million people (nearly half in the capital Ulan Bator), nearly everyone on Twitter pointed us to two people: Oko Davaasuren (@okod) and Ider-Od Bat-Erdene (@IderOdBatErdene).

Together, the two have hosted a series of radio show interviews with Mongolian entrepreneurs which are posted to Youtube. The pair have become the local gurus and bridge to the rest of the world for Mongolia’s nascent startup scene. They were key players in building StartupMongolia, a non-profit company that aims to help grow the local startup ecosystem and community.

The capital city now hosts Startup Weekend hackathons, Startup Grind keynotes, and a local state-run incubator, but most startups there are still in their infancy. Just over half the population has a mobile 3G connection. Only about one in six people have access to landline internet. Mining is the largest industry, sucking up 95 percent of foreign investment. That doesn’t leave much for the scant number of VCs and angel investors, who tend to capitalize on the desperate startup market by taking ten times the equity they would receive in Silicon Valley – 30 to 60 percent of a company, according to Bat-Erdene.

It’s a tough market for startups to say the least, but local entrepreneurs remain steadfast in their efforts to realize their dreams. With some assistance from Bat-Erdene and Davaasuren, here are 10 startups to watch from Mongolia in no particular order.

Kaizen Mongolia

Kaizen Mongolia makes a point-of-sales solution called Egulen. The startup has a presence in both Mongolia and Hong Kong, though its website is entirely in Mongolian. The cloud-based system allows a business to manage its money in an intuitive and cheap way. The hardware includes a receipt printer, touchscreen display, card reader, and cash drawer. Besides the flagship restaurant management software, called iRestaurant, it also offers iStore, iSalon, and iFitness. Because everything is stored on the cloud, store owners can access the system without having to be physically present at their shop.

Oluulaa

Oluulaa is the Kickstarter/Indiegogo of Mongolia. Right now, it contains only four early projects with very little money pledged. If startups are still in their infancy in Mongolia, it would seem crowdfunding hasn’t even left the womb. Still, everything seems to be in place for Oluulaa to catch on once the model gains the necessary public awareness to get the ball rolling.

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