“Smartphone on the head”: how Kazakh entrepreneurs turned an ordinary helmet into a business with revenues of hundreds of thousands of dollars

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The first helmet, which was made by entrepreneur Saken Syzdykov, shattered during testing, and it took him a year and a half to create a successful model. This experience prompted the launch in 2023 of the first production of smart helmets in Kazakhstan – Best Vision Technologies. Together with his partners, Saken turned an ordinary protective headgear into a device with a camera, 4G and AI that monitors the safety of employees. Today the company supplies its helmets not only in Kazakhstan, but also in the UAE, Qatar and is preparing to develop new markets.

This story is part of a large special project “Khalykaralyk business” from Digital Business and Bereke Bank. In it we talk about the 10 best companies that build international supply chains.

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“The production of helmets seemed simple in theory, until in practice we spent a year and a half creating a successful model,” Saken Syzdykov recalls his first experience in manufacturing protective gear.

Then, in 2014, there was simply no raw material on the Kazakh market that could withstand the load required by the standards. The first helmet literally shattered into pieces right during the tests.

After the first failures, we had to find suppliers of plastic of the required quality abroad and negotiate with familiar specialists from Britain so that they would allow us to copy some parts of their helmets. As a result, the Kazakh version turned out to be even stronger and more stable - it can withstand temperatures from -50 to +50 degrees Celsius.

In 2022, customers began to receive requests to install cameras on helmets. “These requests were not isolated, it became clear that it was important for people to have not just a hard hat at work, but a smart hard hat. Then we decided we had to try it,” says Saken.

The entrepreneur realized that production competencies alone are not enough to create a new product. Therefore, he attracted partners with experience in the areas he lacked: technical director Ruslan Khamzin with expertise in IT project management and operational director Alexey Vladimirov, who has been implementing technological solutions at industrial enterprises for more than 10 years. This is how Best Vision Technologies was born in 2023.

“A smart helmet is an Android-based device. In fact, the smartphone is on the employee’s head. The helmet has everything you need: a camera, a laser rangefinder, a speaker, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and 4G,” explains Ruslan Khamzin.

But the most important thing is the detection system, which receives collected data such as video, voice and geolocation. Using AI, machine learning and computer vision, the program automatically analyzes them.

“We created a device that monitors work processes without human intervention and helps companies see an objective picture of the enterprise,” explains Saken.

Production is concentrated in Almaty, where the company has its own workshop for casting helmets and other plastic parts, as well as an office for assembling and programming devices.