{"id":46043,"date":"2026-06-30T16:06:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T16:06:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/46043\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T16:06:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T16:06:13","slug":"inside-inmerges-berlin-can-a-4m-fund-build-a-bridge-between-europe-and-central-asia-tfn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/46043\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside INMerge’s Berlin: Can a $4M fund build a bridge between Europe and Central Asia? \u2014 TFN"},"content":{"rendered":"

INMerge Ventures<\/a>, the fund attached to Azerbaijan\u2019s flagship startup summit, has $4 million in authorised capital. On June 29 in Berlin, its managing partner shared a stage with representatives from SAP, Microsoft Germany and a director at one of Germany\u2019s largest development banks, all there to discuss how money should move between Europe and Central Asia.<\/p>\n

That gap, a fund smaller than a single seed round next to institutions managing tens of billions, is the real story underneath INMerge Innovation Summit\u2019s Berlin<\/a> stop, the third and final leg of its 2026 international series after Istanbul<\/a> and Tashkent<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Held at the AXICA Convention Centre as an official side event of\u00a0GITEX Europe<\/a> and organised with Plug and Play<\/a>, the day was framed by its organisers as a bridge-building event between Europe and Azerbaijan, the Caucasus, and Central Asia.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tech Funding News followed the sessions to see whether that bridge has any traffic yet.<\/p>\n

The trust corridor has a name and a track record<\/p>\n

Founded in Azerbaijan in 2021, INMerge describes itself as a platform that connects startups, investors, corporates, and technology leaders through events, partnerships, and ecosystem-building initiatives, aiming to accelerate the region\u2019s innovation ecosystem by fostering meaningful connections, knowledge exchange, and investment opportunities.<\/p>\n

\"\"Image credits: INMerge Summit<\/p>\n

The day opened with remarks from H.E. Nasimi Aghayev, Ambassador of the Republic of Azerbaijan to Germany, before Martin Gutmann<\/a> delivered the keynote, \u201cAre we celebrating the wrong leaders?\u201d, built around reflecting on the evolving qualities of leadership in a fast-changing global innovation landscape, and challenging conventional ideas of what effective leadership looks like.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The day\u2019s headline panel, \u201cTrust corridors: rebuilding financial bridges between Europe and emerging markets,\u201d could easily have been another stage exercise in cross-border platitudes. It wasn\u2019t, mostly because of who was on it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Image credits: INMerge Summit<\/p>\n

Ekaterina Galitsyna<\/a>, who spoke for KfW IPEX-Bank<\/a>, is the bank\u2019s director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, and three weeks before Berlin, she was in Tashkent meeting Uzbek officials<\/a> directly about financing the country\u2019s textile export sector, alongside Germany\u2019s AKA Bank.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Galitsyna, Bahruz Naghiyev<\/a> of PASHA Bank Azerbaijan and Zuzana Franz<\/a> of ODDO BHF, moderated by Rza Aliyev<\/a> of NGIC, argued that the gap between Europe and Central Eurasia is a confidence problem rather than a distance one.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The market backs them up. Venture funding in the Caucasus and Central Asia<\/a> has grown roughly sixfold over the past six years, according to research from RISE Research, EA Group and BGlobal Ventures conducted with Crunchbase and Kazakhstan\u2019s Ministry of Digital Development. Average round sizes nearly doubled between 2022 and 2023.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Azerbaijan\u2019s own venture infrastructure tells the same story in miniature. Caucasus Ventures<\/a>, the country\u2019s first institutional fund, launched in 2022 with backing from PASHA Holding, the same conglomerate that runs INMerge. INMerge Ventures followed in October 2024 with that $4 million in authorised capital, and a third fund backed by White Hill Capital is reportedly in the works to push the country\u2019s total managed venture assets toward $15 million.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For context, that is roughly the size of a single mid-sized Series A in Berlin or London. Tughra Musayeva<\/a>, who holds the dual title of head of innovations at PASHA Financial Holding and managing partner at INMerge Ventures, moderated Berlin\u2019s AI and big tech panel, meaning the fund with the smallest balance sheet at the table was also setting the terms of the conversation.<\/p>\n

Farid Mammadov<\/a>, CEO at PASHA Financial Holding, described Berlin\u2019s purpose as extending the conversation \u201cbeyond regional borders\u201d toward a \u201cstronger bridge between Europe, Azerbaijan, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and emerging innovation markets.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

A separate fireside chat, \u201cBeyond efficiency: Wellbeing, Culture and the Future of Work,\u201d featured Ad Boon<\/a> of PASHA Holding and Martin Gutmann<\/a> of the Lucerne School of Business, moderated by Maria Ivanova<\/a> of Gingo Partners.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Image credits: INMerge Summit<\/p>\n

The conversation explored how organisations can balance productivity with employee wellbeing, an inclusive culture, and long-term resilience, part of a broader push toward more human-centred approaches to work and the day\u2019s softest, least contentious programming.<\/p>\n

Big tech\u2019s regional pitch<\/p>\n

The panel \u201cFrom Berlin labs to emerging market scale: AI, Big Tech and the next innovation bridge\u201d carried the day\u2019s clearest commercial intent.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Image credits: INMerge Summit<\/p>\n

It examined how AI and global technology companies are shaping opportunities in high-growth markets, with speakers Mammad Karim<\/a> of Caucasus Ventures, Mehti Aslanov<\/a> of PASHA Financial Holding, Alexandra Begue<\/a> of SAP and Valeria Sadovykh<\/a> of Microsoft Germany, moderated by Tughra Musayeva<\/a> of PASHA Financial Holding.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The panel focused on how ideas developed in hubs like Berlin can be exported to high-growth markets through partnerships, investment, and ecosystem collaboration, rather than direct expansion, a more capital-efficient route for big tech and corporates wary of building from scratch in unfamiliar regulatory environments.<\/p>\n

Sintro takes the Berlin crown<\/p>\n

Berlin was not INMerge\u2019s first attempt at this thesis this year, and the roadshow\u2019s prior stops offer a useful gut check. Istanbul<\/a>, the series opener in February, drew close to 200 attendees for a day co-hosted with Tenity, opening with a keynote on AI investment strategy from Fahed Bizzari and a panel featuring 500 Emerging Europe, Yap\u0131 Kredi and T\u00fcrkiye\u2019s Presidential Investment Office.<\/p>\n

Each regional stop has closed with the same format: a Startup Pitch Competition judged by leading investors, sending three startups to the Baku flagship: one fully funded and two with partial support. Tashkent\u2019s winners were never publicly named in INMerge\u2019s own materials. Berlin followed the identical pattern.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sintro won outright and will receive a fully funded trip to the main INMerge Innovation Summit in Baku<\/a> on November 30 and December 1, with a shot at the $50,000 IN Battle prize<\/a>. Datfid and Lan fly placed as runners-up with partial funding.<\/p>\n

What Baku needs to prove<\/p>\n

As the final stop in the 2026 international series, Berlin\u2019s organisers framed the day as underscoring INMerge\u2019s role in connecting Europe with Central Eurasia and reaffirming the summit\u2019s mission to bring together ecosystems, capital and ideas ahead of the main event. The contrast with that main event raises the real stakes for November.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

INMerge\u2019s 2025 Baku flagship pulled more than 5,000 participants, 150 speakers, 100 startups and over 80 venture funds<\/a>, according to Azerbaijan\u2019s Ministry of Science and Education. The roadshow\u2019s job is recruitment, and on that narrow measure, Berlin delivered exactly what Istanbul and Tashkent did: one keynote, two or three panels, a fireside chat and a pitch competition, with the institutional names changing city to city.<\/p>\n

International investors are circling the Caucasus and Central Asia as global trade routes shift, with Azerbaijan\u2019s position on the Middle Corridor between China and Europe cited as a structural advantage. The open question raised there is the same one implicit in Tashkent\u2019s \u201cDigital Silk Road\u201d panel: whether the region can convert strategic positioning into deal flow before investor patience runs out.<\/p>\n

For TFN, that is the frame worth watching. INMerge has now spent a year methodically introducing European institutional capital to Azerbaijani and Central Asian operators across three cities, on the record, through a fund with a balance sheet smaller than the deals its own panellists discuss daily. <\/p>\n

Whether that asymmetry resolves into actual term sheets or simply repeats as a well-attended conversation is the only metric that will matter when the flagship opens in November.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This article is produced in a content partnership with INMerge Summit.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"INMerge Ventures, the fund attached to Azerbaijan\u2019s flagship startup summit, has $4 million in authorised capital. On June…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":46044,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[18,151,42,8053,8054],"class_list":["post-46043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-berlin","tag-berlin","tag-europe","tag-news","tag-paid-partnership","tag-startups"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46043"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46043\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}