Kazakhstani entrepreneurs Artur Pan and Madiyar Bakbergenov have created a startup called PanDev Metrics, which analyzes IT team performance, calculates feature development costs, and detects signs of employee burnout. The company has already raised $400,000 in investment at a $5 million valuation and is preparing for a new funding round. This was reported by infohub.kz.
Before launching the startup, Artur Pan and Madiyar Bakbergenov built successful careers in the IT industry. Pan, from Almaty, worked as a programmer at Kaspi, contributed to the creation of Kaspi Shop and the courier dashboard, and later served as technical director for the Vlife loyalty program and the Azerbaijani platform Umico (now Birmarket). It was there, managing a team of nearly 150 people, that he noticed the opacity of the development process and decided to create an analytics service. Bakbergenov, from Karaganda, worked at Chocofood, launched a women's clothing store, developed the startup Kwaaka, and then moved into startup consulting. They met through LinkedIn and joined forces.
Pan invested $100,000 of his own money, saved for an apartment. 'I faced a choice: buy an apartment or invest in my own startup. I chose the latter,' he recalls. The first sale brought in $55, and then the startup went through the MOST Ventures accelerator and received $200,000 in investment.
PanDev Metrics connects to a developer's work tools (IDE, browser, terminal, AI services) and analyzes their actions. The system measures how much time tasks take and calculates the cost of each feature based on programmers' salaries. 'In many entrepreneurs' view, programmers are some kind of wizards who do something incomprehensible, and they try not to interfere with their work. Our system answers questions like: how many do you need, who is going the extra mile, and who only works a couple of hours a day,' explains Pan.
The service also identifies indirect signs of burnout: rude prompts to neural networks, repetitive questions, and nighttime work. 'If an employee works at night and codes abnormally more than others, that's a sign of overload,' he adds.
In one company, the system showed that engineers were working on a long-closed project. In another case, it turned out that a project manager was poorly describing tasks, causing developers to spend a lot of time understanding requirements. After replacing the manager, productivity increased. 'Our system often shows that the problem is not with the programmers, but with the processes,' notes Pan.
Currently, the team consists of six experienced engineers, as well as a business development manager, lawyer, accountant, and financier. The startup is nearly breaking even: monthly recurring revenue (MRR) is $20,000. Clients include 15–20 companies, 85% from Kazakhstan (MyCar, Biometric, Halyk Finance, MyLink, Damumed, Zeely.ai, and others), and the rest from Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, and one from the United States. Pricing: up to 20 developers – $500, up to 50 – $1,000, up to 100 – $2,000, and for larger teams, custom pricing.
PanDev Metrics has become a partner of JetBrains through its Consulting Partner Program. 'We are building a startup with an eye toward a future sale to a major market player. So it's important for us to be close to companies like JetBrains or Atlassian,' says Bakbergenov. The founders plan an exit in 2–3 years. They are currently in talks with a strategic player and discussing metrics for a deal. In a year, they expect a valuation of $25–50 million.
'We want to become an essential toolkit for every CTO. Jira and GitLab are mastodons, used by almost every company. Our goal is to become just as popular,' concludes Pan.