PASHA Bank, one of Azerbaijan's largest banks, has signed a Memorandum on Cooperation with Barama, a business incubation centre supported by Azercell, Azerbaijan's leading mobile operator. The overall objective of this partnership is to implement joint projects that focus on developing innovation-oriented entrepreneurship in Azerbaijan and expanding the non-oil sector of the economy, particularly the ICT industry.
According to Taleh Kazimov, Chairman of the Executive Board of PASHA Bank, supporting local entrepreneurship and SMEs has been at the heart of PASHA Bank's operations since it was founded in 2007. "We believe that young, innovation-oriented entrepreneurs are the drivers of Azerbaijan's future economic development and we are delighted to be able to support start-ups through our partnership with Barama. PASHA Bank has long supported small- and medium-sized enterprises and we hope to further build Azerbaijan's start-up culture by working with Barama."
PASHA Bank and Barama already have a history of working on joint projects. Most recently, PASHA Bank and Barama were among the corporate supporters of Seedstars Baku, a start-up competition where 12 of Azerbaijan's best start-ups pitched for the chance to win up to $1.5mn in investment.