Skolkovo, the international tech hub under completion on the outskirts of Moscow, signed a memorandum of understanding with Bhaum Telecom Ventures Private Limited, a daughter structure of India’s Kanoria Foundation, at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) last week.
The MoU, signed by Skolkovo Foundation’s chairman of the board Igor Drozdov and Bhaum Telecom Ventures’ representative Rajinder Sethi, opens the way to the development of joint projects in the field of innovation in both India and Russia.
Thus, Russian startups will be provided with free working space in India with the aim of promoting Russian technology on the Indian market, and Russian and Indian incubators and innovation centers will cooperate.
Bhaum Telecom Ventures and the Kanoria Foundation, a trust run by the family of the same name, are headquartered in the eastern Indian city of Kolkata.
One of the first contacts between Skolkovo and India took place in 2014, when a delegation of Indian scientists, educators and ministry officials paid to the tech hub on a fact-finding mission to study the opportunities available for Indian students and startups in Russia.
A few months later, following a visit by President Vladimir Putin to New Delhi, 15 IT companies from Skolkovo travelled to India.
Among the other active Russian players on the Indian startup scene is Sistema Asia Fund, one of the venture funds of the Sistema conglomerate. The fund targets essentially startups operating in the technology and niche consumer retail segments in India and Southeast Asia. It has established its headquarters in Singapore and an office in India.
Since its inception in early 2016, Sistema Asia Fund has participated in a $12 million funding round for Seclore, led a $10 million round for QwikCilver, put some $3 million in Wooplr, and participated in a $14 million round for the Indian healthcare startup Netmeds as well as in a more recent round for HealthifyMe.
