Arlan Rakhmetzhanov, the founder of the startup Nozomio, has successfully raised $1 million in a pre-seed funding round. Remarkably, investor interest exceeded the amount needed.
The round closed in just five days after the 18-year-old arrived in London. Arlan traveled to the UK to join the accelerator Entrepreneurs First, having dropped out of school in his final year to pursue this opportunity.
Nozomio is building a platform for developers that enables the deployment and coordination of AI agents capable of independently understanding code, executing tasks on demand, and accelerating routine workflows. The company’s first agent, Nia, acts as an AI engineer for any codebase — understanding project structures and answering technical questions.
The lead investor in the round was LocalGlobe, one of Europe’s most successful venture capital firms, known for backing unicorns like Figma, Revolut, Wise, and Robinhood. The project also attracted investment from Nurdaulet Bazylbekov, founder of the venture club Eurasian Hub Ventures, who has joined Nozomio as a strategic and fundraising advisor.
“Investor interest surpassed $1 million, but accepting more would have meant giving up a larger equity share. I had to politely decline, including an offer from a scout at Sequoia Capital. I had just landed in London and posted on LinkedIn about dropping out of school and moving here — and everything took off from there. Investors started reaching out to me directly,” said Arlan.
According to Bazylbekov, Arlan’s story is unprecedented, even by the standards of mature Western ecosystems:
“Within a couple of days of fundraising, every top investor in London knew about Arlan. I know successful founders from Kazakhstan — like Remofirst, Causaly, DNA Payments — but this is the first time someone has literally just arrived and immediately captured the industry’s attention. This case proves that founders from our region can think globally from day one — and gain international support.”
The round was structured using a standard SAFE (Simple Agreement for Future Equity), a common startup investment instrument where funds are provided upfront, and equity is allocated later once the company’s valuation is determined.
Arlan plans to use the funds to hire backend developers, scale the technical infrastructure, and relocate to San Francisco.
