Photo: Klok
Shukhrat Isakov, the Almaty-based founder of Klok, says he has invested around $20,000 of his own money in the project. After working in trade, he went on to build a marketplace with on-site seller checks. Isakov says three companies currently pay for plans, and the team spends its modest revenue on advertising. In written answers to raem.kz, he discussed the first payments, business checks and plans to connect stores with suppliers.
Source note: Statements about Klok’s operations, investment, paying customers and development plans below come from Isakov’s written answers. Independent confirmation of these company-specific claims was not established. The two independent sources cited in the market context section provide industry evidence; they do not verify Klok’s figures or the effectiveness of its seller checks.
The market Klok is entering
Kazakhstan’s Bureau of National Statistics reports that domestic retail e-commerce reached 3,768.8 billion tenge in 2025, accounting for 14.3% of total retail trade. Marketplaces generated 86% of retail e-commerce turnover. These figures establish the scale of the market in which Klok aims to operate, rather than the startup’s own position within it. Source: Bureau of National Statistics, E-commerce in Kazakhstan, 2025.
A separate study by Strategy&, part of the PwC network, and the Digital Kazakhstan Association identified more frequent purchases and declining average order values in 2024. Its analysis also highlighted competition around prices, delivery and promotions. The study used data from market participants and defined its scope as online retail sales of goods to individuals; it does not establish demand for Klok’s proposed B2B tools. Source: Strategy& and DKA, Kazakhstan retail e-commerce market analysis for 2024.
How Shukhrat Isakov came up with Klok
Isakov says his main experience is around five years in trade and e-commerce. Working with customers and suppliers showed him how difficult it can be to establish who is on the other side of a deal. In his view, buyers need information about the business behind a listing: its office, warehouse or production facilities.
“A compelling listing does not always have a real company with an office, warehouse or production facilities behind it,” Isakov says. That is why, he explains, in-person visits to sellers became the foundation of Klok. According to his account, the team learns how a company operates and records what it sees in photos and videos, giving buyers more information before a transaction.
The founder dates the project’s beginnings to 2024. He describes the idea as bringing together a catalogue, communication between companies and purchasing tools. This business-to-business interaction is known as B2B: for example, a store buying goods from a supplier to resell, discussing quantities, timing and delivery terms.
What the “Verified by Klok” badge confirms, according to Isakov
Isakov explains that the process starts with an application: the seller provides information about the company, and the team then arranges a meeting. He says staff visit the office and learn how the business operates. If the company has a warehouse or production workshop, they visit those too. Materials from the visit are then posted on the seller’s profile.
“This badge confirms that a check took place and the information recorded at the time of the visit,” the founder explains. He stresses that it does not guarantee that the company will act in good faith in future, fulfil every transaction or sell only authentic goods. Buyers still need to assess each specific offer: the visit provides information about the seller only as of the time of the check.
Isakov says users can currently report a product on the website. The team next plans to develop manual moderation and review user reports. In disputed cases, it intends to request documents showing where the goods came from. It plans to restrict listings with confirmed violations and limit access for repeat offenders. These are development plans, rather than a description of a system already in operation.
“We currently have three companies paying for marketplace plans”
Isakov says he has invested around $20,000 of his own money in developing Klok. According to him, businesses have started making payments, but the project has yet to turn a consistent profit. “We currently have three companies paying for marketplace plans. Revenue is still modest, and we spend the money coming in on advertising and attracting an audience,” the founder says. These figures remain his account rather than independently verified financial results.
Isakov sees business plans offering additional listing and customer management features as the main source of future revenue. The team is also considering paid promotion for offers, labelled as advertising, along with tools for selecting products and processing requests. Another possible source of revenue is paid listings in the business and franchise section.
Once the map is integrated, the team may offer suppliers a subscription to tools for handling store requests and aggregated analytics. The founder says the final range of services and prices will depend on testing demand. He also states that paid listings must not determine the findings about a seller. “Paying for a plan must not override the findings of a seller check,” Isakov stresses.
How Klok plans to expand its network of checks
On-site checks require staff time, travel arrangements and spending, Isakov acknowledges. The founder says that when expanding into the regions, the team plans to start with a small office and two employees. It intends to open local offices as demand grows: the economics of such an office need to be assessed against its actual workload, travel costs and the number of checks.
“We deliberately built it into the model: an in-person visit provides information that is difficult to obtain from a registration form,” Isakov says, explaining the choice of on-site checks. To expand the network, the team plans to introduce a standard procedure for company visits and requirements for photos and videos. It intends to monitor the results centrally and group visits by area when planning routes.
The founder says the network will expand in stages, with the aim of maintaining the quality of checks as sellers join. The team intends to track the cost and duration of visits, as well as reports about the quality of companies’ work. It will also pay attention to sellers moving to paid plans and renewing subscriptions.
How Clock Market is intended to connect Almaty stores and suppliers
Isakov says Clock Market, a module featuring a 3D map of Almaty, is being integrated. Its intended purpose is to connect retail outlets with suppliers through product requests. He says the team is also surveying stores to better understand their day-to-day needs. The proposed workflow involves exchanging data between a store’s mobile app and a supplier’s interface.
When a store needs goods, it is meant to create a request through the app. Once submitted, the request should become available to suppliers in real time so they can propose delivery terms. “The source of this data is specific requests from the stores themselves,” Isakov explains. Under the proposed design, the map would link retail outlets to their locations, while the database would collect their requests.
The founder stresses that this data would reflect the stated needs of participating stores. The team does not promise to measure all demand across Almaty automatically. It plans to assess the service through store and supplier activity, the number of requests and the share receiving a response. It will also track the time to the first response, a measure of how quickly suppliers react to a request.
How AI is meant to help with purchasing from a list
Isakov says the website already has an interface for an artificial intelligence, or AI, assistant. For purchasing between companies, the team is developing a tool intended to find products for an entire list. Instead of searching for each item individually, users would submit a list in the chat. The assistant’s intended job is to interpret the request and match it with offers on the platform at catalogue prices.
“Using AI does not mean we have our own trained model or automatic demand forecasting: we make no separate claims to offer those capabilities,” the founder says. He notes that how up to date the matches are depends on sellers updating their information. Availability, the final price and delivery terms therefore need confirmation before purchase.
Isakov links the development of these tools to the differences between individual buyers and businesses. In his account, a buyer needs a clear product listing, a price and contact with the seller. A company needs wholesale terms, regular deliveries and a discussion of the details. He says the team is introducing tools in stages and refining workflows through feedback.
What Isakov plans next and his advice for buyers
Isakov says Klok is targeting an investment round of 100 million tenge. He intends to use the funds to develop the platform, complete the integration of Clock Market, attract participants and expand the network of checks. This is a fundraising target, rather than secured financing. According to the founder, the company’s valuation, the form of financing, the investor’s stake and the funding schedule have yet to be determined. The budget allocation will need to be clarified when preparing the investment proposal.
Isakov says the priority for the next 12 months is to strengthen operations in Almaty and test how stores and suppliers work together on actual requests. The proposed next step is to gradually bring in Kazakhstan’s regions, with local seller checks. “We will set specific numerical targets for attracting participants and expanding geographically based on the results of our current work and the map pilot,” the founder explains.
Isakov advises buyers to check the terms of each transaction even after finding a product. This advice also applies when using the AI assistant: the result depends on the information in the catalogue. “Before ordering, you need to confirm availability, the final price and delivery terms,” he says.
Startup Radar: Klok
