HSE Inc., the startup incubator of Moscow’s Higher School of Economics, has concluded the 2012-2013 season of its Iron Entrepreneur business game for aspiring entrepreneurs from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Kazakhstan. In the finals, 91 participants had two days to develop business solutions based on Qmodule, a wireless technology that allows users to control different objects.
This season’s champions, the NoName team from Samara, Russia, have created a business project called “Chestnaya Truba” (Russian for “Fair Pipe”), the goal of which is to minimize oil leaks and theft from the pipelines. The main idea is to put Qmodule sensors on the pipelines and develop a leak-notification system.
The Pineapple team from the Russian city of Nizhny Novgorod, the runners-up, worked on a marketing solution that would allow shops to track their customers’ behavior on the sales floor.
Third place was taken by the team Idea Generators from Voronezh, Russia, who developed a system to control and maintain vending machines.
An augmented reality game, a child-protection system based on a special bracelet, and agricultural solutions were among the other projects presented at the contest.
The contest was organized by HSE Inc. in conjunction with several partners, including RVC, the national fund of funds dedicated to innovation, and leading Russian Internet group Mail.Ru Group.
