Kyrgyz entrepreneur Ulugbek Yuldashev is the founder and chief executive officer of AWOK.com, which is, one of the leading online retail platforms in the UAE. He founded the online store in 2013, which commenced operations, by selling electronics and gadgets. The company has grown rapidly since its inception, offers over 50,000 products across 30 plus categories, and employs close to 500 people.

Yuldashev has had a flair for business since an early age and started his first company in 2004, when he was just 19 years old. It was a retail and wholesale business in Kyrgyzstan named Domashniy (Russian for Home Center).

In 2006, the ambitious young entrepreneur moved to Dubai and in 2008 established the wholesale company Gulf Alabel Technologies LLC. Success in this venture led to Yuldashev setting up another wholesale company called Alifco LLC followed by entering the ecommerce industry in the region with ALIFCA DMCC as the parent company of AWOK.com.

Ulugbek is a business graduate and considers his father to be his mentor who instilled in him discipline and ethics in business at a young age. Hailing from a retail background, Yuldashev is committed to being customer-centric. Customer satisfaction is at the core of his decision making process as much as an acute business sense and boldness.

Yuldashev’s commitment to ‘not quit without winning’ stems from being a dynamic sportsman since school days. He has grown up winning various national and regional level competitions in Kyrgyzstan. Competitive sports that he has trained in and won include martial arts, tennis, swimming and 10km running.

When away from his growing business, Ulugbek enjoys spending time with his young family. He is a voracious reader and speaks English, Russian, Kyrgyz and Uzbek fluently.