Photo: SkillPass
Kazakhstani startup SkillPass is digitising workplace and fire safety: AI tells companies which requirements apply to them, while employees complete safety briefings and confirm completion through facial matching and a cloud-based digital signature. According to the company, more than 500 companies already use the platform, and 2–3 thousand employees have completed briefings through it. raem.kz spoke to SkillPass co-founder and CEO Kaisar Kenzhali about the product, its customers and plans to expand into Uzbekistan.
From fire safety to IT
SkillPass grew out of a conventional business. Since 2018, Kenzhali’s team has worked in fire safety, occupational safety, counterterrorism protection and sanitary standards. In 2025, the company decided to digitise tasks previously handled manually, from safety briefings to buying fire extinguishers.
Two or three students built the first version of the product. The company now has more than 20 employees, including 12 sales managers. The team calls its approach “working backwards”: first they sell the product to a customer, then refine it to meet real needs.
Kaisar Kenzhali trained in finance and graduated from Narxoz University. He worked in the field for several years, joined a fire safety company “temporarily” in 2017 and started his own in 2018.
A person on stage in front of a large screen showing a SkillPass presentation, beside a fire extinguisher prop. · Photo: SkillPass
How the platform works
SkillPass has three main modules. The first is an AI checklist: a company specifies its type of business, such as a café, clinic, school or hostel, and immediately sees which safety requirements apply and what equipment it needs. According to Kenzhali, the checklist draws its information from legislation. If an error is found while documents are being prepared, the process stops and the team helps correct it.
The second module is a digital safety briefing log. An employee completes a briefing and a test, verifies their identity through FaceID (facial matching), then signs the document using a cloud-based digital signature. The team says Order No. 1019 allows occupational safety records to be kept digitally; the company is now in talks with government agencies about digitising the entire process.
The third module is a CRM for occupational safety engineers: it sends reminders about deadlines for recharging fire extinguishers, updating evacuation plans and completing certifications.
According to Kenzhali, a proper safety cost estimate should allocate around 20% of the budget to safety, while in practice companies spend about 3%.
A man stands in front of a group of people in an office. · Photo: SkillPass
Customers and pilots
SkillPass ran pilots for around two years. The company names the Almaty city administration, Astana’s Public Health Department, Astana LRT, Astana Airport, Bosch and Freedom among those involved. It reaches large customers through cold calls: sales managers call companies, which is how, for example, they secured a meeting with the airport.
The platform runs on an annual subscription, with pricing based on the customer’s employee count.
Marketing remains a challenge, Kenzhali admits: the typical customer is a manager over 45 who is hard to reach through targeted advertising. According to the company, 70–80% of customers come through referrals and existing connections. The team plans to launch targeted advertising, SEO and contextual advertising once an investor comes on board.
A man stands in front of a group of people in an office. · Photo: SkillPass
Accelerators and awards
SkillPass completed the IRA accelerator in Almaty and the Astana Innovations Accelerator. According to the company, at AI & Digital Bridge 2026 the project reached the final in the GovTech category, the final of the AIA and Draper Founders demo day, and the semi-final of Astana Hub Battle.
Kenzhali believes accelerators are particularly useful for newcomers. “I went there for the networking, and the networking was fantastic,” he says. If sales are already coming in, he believes an accelerator is optional.
An investor and Uzbekistan
According to the company, SkillPass is undergoing due diligence and signing an agreement with an investor whose name has not yet been disclosed.
Uzbekistan is the next market. The launch there is planned for around the third or fourth quarter of 2027. The country’s occupational safety laws are similar to Kazakhstan’s, and the team says integration with government bodies is possible. SkillPass is already in talks with Uzbek venture capital firms and a technology park.
Before SkillPass, Kenzhali had an HR startup called LifeApp, a corporate perks and discounts service. He and his partner invested 28 million tenge in it. The project reached the semi-final of Digital Bridge 2025 but was shut down.
That experience shaped Kenzhali’s advice to first-time founders: do not approach investors with just an idea; first prove the product yourselves, with minimal funding and numbers to back it up. Then, he believes, the right investor will approach the company.
