Hackonnect Blog

Techstars Startup Weekend Nukus Wraps Up: How 110 Innovators Chased a 30M UZS Prize Pool

On June 28, 2026, the city of Nukus successfully concluded its first-ever Techstars Startup Weekend Ideathon. For 54 intense hours, the Karakalpak State University named after Berdakh transformed into the region's ultimate hub for technological innovation and startup culture.

The event was brought to life by Techstars Uzbekistan, with strategic support from the National Venture Fund UzVC (operating under the Ministry of Economy and Finance of the Republic of Uzbekistan) and official program operator Hackonnect.

The Weekend in Numbers:

54 Hours of non-stop brainstorming, customer validation, and coding.
110 Ambitious Participants pushing their technical limits.
21 MVP Projects successfully making it to the final stage.
12+ Top Mentors providing operational insights.
30,000,000 UZS total prize pool split among the top 3 MVPs as an extra incentive

The ideathon’s schedule relied heavily on Techstars' strict international methodology, leaving no room for theory — only raw, execution-focused building:

Day 1 (Friday, June 26) — Pitching & Team Assembly: The event kicked off with a rapid-fire open mic night. Over a hundred attendees pitched raw concepts, followed by an open voting process to filter out the most viable ideas. Cross-functional teams of 3 to 5 people quickly formed around the winning selections.
Day 2 (Saturday, June 27) — Development & Validation: Saturday was all about the hustle. Guided by experienced mentors, teams focused entirely on creating working prototypes (MVPs), testing assumptions on real consumers, and fine-tuning their business models. Three specialized technical workshops gave teams the extra toolkit they needed.
Day 3 (Sunday, June 28) — The Final Demo Day: 21 teams took the main stage to pitch their validated platforms and working software models directly to a panel of venture capitalists, local ecosystem figures, and angel investors.

🎬 Check out the vibe, official highlights from Ideathon:Techstars SW Nukus 2026 Video Recap.

Meet the Winners: Top 3 MVPs

🥇 1st Place — KUTIM (Phoenix)

The Concept: Smart IoT Hardware for Eldercare Adherence.

How it works: KUTIM tackles a widespread healthcare issue: chronic patients and elderly individuals routinely forgetting to take their medications on time. The team built a smart hardware pill dispenser paired with a companion app. The device automatically drops the exact pill dosage according to a pre-set digital calendar and triggers a reminder phone call if the patient misses their window.

🥈 2nd Place — ARGUS (Qwen)

The Concept: Proactive Threat Detection via Vision-Language Modeling.

How it works: Instead of relying on passive, historical security recordings, ARGUS uses a custom Vision-Language Model (VLM) to turn ordinary surveillance cameras into active lookouts. The software scans video feeds in real-time to spot suspicious behaviors like shoplifting or unauthorized after-hours access. Powered by Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) principles, it acts as a "CCTV search engine," letting operators query security footage using simple text chats.

🥉 3rd Place — CLIPPER (Cliperr.uz)

The Concept: A Vetted Domestic Service Marketplace via Telegram Mini App.

How it works: Finding reliable domestic help (babysitters, cleaners, plumbers) in Uzbekistan is usually a chaotic process scattered across random chat groups. CLIPPER unifies these providers into a single, clean Telegram Mini App. To solve the market's trust issue, every provider gets a transparent "Trust Score" dynamically calculated from 7 factors, including official ID verification, transaction history, and response speed.

Mentors of Ideathon

Experienced industry experts and mentors from AI, Marketing, IT, Fintech, and Banking spent hours helping teams break down barriers and refine their products. The full list of mentors is available via link:https://startupweekend.uz/nukus-2026.

It's just the Beginning

This successful event marked the first official launch of the Techstars community in Nukus. From now on, we will continue developing the startup community in Nukus.

Don't miss your chance to be part of the wave—join the Techstars Uzbekistan community today. Get ready, because your region might be next! 🫵