From May 29 to June 1, thousands of tech entrepreneurs, inventors, scientists, corporates and investors from some 80 countries gathered in Startup Village, a annual giant two-day event. This open-air conference and exhibition took place in Skolkovo, the international tech hub nearing completion on the outskirts of Moscow.
Skolkovo’s two-day open-air Startup Village is the biggest event for startups in Eastern Europe. Photo credit: Sk.ru.
The main theme of this year’s conference was ‘Super Sapiens: Incredible Tech.’ Event participants discussed “how new technology changes people’s lives on a variety of levels: physiologically (such as cyborgs, or organs and tissue grown in labs), socially, at the manufacturing level (new materials and so on) and as a planet (one of the conference sections is devoted to the ecological impact of technology),” according to the organizers.
More than 100 tech experts, visionaries, entrepreneurs and investors will speak at the event’s conference section, which will also feature presentations and master classes by companies including Microsoft, SAP, Cisco, IBM, Yandex, Tinkoff and Sberbank.
The event was “more international than ever before,” with dozens of startups from Japan, France, Italy, Bangladesh and Korea all taking part.
This year’s partner country was Japan, which had its own pavilion at the Startup Village, flanked by artificial cherry blossom trees. Almost 30 Japanese companies working in fields including IT software, healthcare and agriculture are taking part in the Startup Village, Japan’s ambassador to Russia, Toyohisa Kozuki, said at the opening of the pavilion, expressing hope that they would find business opportunities with Russian companies.
“Technology is a very important part that connects Japan and Russia,” the ambassador stated.
Italy also had its own pavilion at the Startup Village, showcasing some 35 startups brought over by the Italian Trade Agency in Moscow.
One of the startups on show at the Italian stand was The Edge Company, which also made it through to the semi-finals of the Startup Village competition. The company is developing a Bird Concentration Monitoring System (BCMS) that uses algorithms and AI to monitor areas around airports to reduce the probability of bird strikes. The system recognizes species of birds, counts their number and predicts trajectories to ensure flight safety without interfering with birds’ natural habitat.
The Edge Company’s Fabio Masci demonstrated how AI can be used to recognise real 3D objects, using a coffee machine as an example. When a tablet computer was pointed at the coffee machine, step-by-step instructions on how to use it appeared on the screen.
La French Tech was also out in force at this year’s Startup Village, with its own stand and 11 startups taking part in the event.
“We think that the potential in Russia is very big, and Russian people are very open to the French, and French people, when they travel to Russia, are very surprised and impressed,” Foued Kefif, head of technologies and services at Business France Russia, said in an exchange with the Skolkovo Foundation.
Of the 11 French startups at the Skolkovo Startup Village, five work in retail tech, two in hardware, and four in B2B and platforms, said Kefif. Several of them took part in the Startup Village’s competition programme, though Kefif said it had not been an easy experience for them, given that the other pitches and many of the jury’s comments were in Russian.
“We went with the startups to the largest Russian companies: Sberbank, Rosbank; yesterday we met RZD [Russian Railways] and Russian Post here, and they are all very open to meet with French startups, which is really amazing,” he said.
“The visit of Emmanuel Macron last week [at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum] really helped too of course. It gave so much energy to the group, so we’re very happy,” added Kefif.
Foued Kefif of Business France pictured at the French Tech stand. Photo: Sk.ru.
Kazakhstan also had its own pavilion where startups could learn more about Startup Kazakhstan, its international acceleration programme. Participants in the accelerator get $20,000 in investment, plus a second round of $100,000 for the best projects. They also get the chance to go to Silicon Valley, tax breaks and support in setting up an international company.
Over at the Startup Bazaar, about a dozen startups from South Korea supported by a government agency there were demonstrating their products, including Sung-Ho Lee, founder and CEO of OnSQUARE, the maker of the Soundcorset app, which combines a metronome and tuning function with a sound recorder. He said that taking part in the Startup Bazaar had been useful, and that he had met a lot of people at the Startup Village, including many who already know and use his app.
Alongside the Korean companies were seven startups from Bangladesh, including the Bangladesh Robotics Foundation, a non-profit organisation that was exhibiting its pipe inspection robot designed for finding cracks and damage in petrol and chemical pipelines before they leak. Nearby, fellow Bangladeshi company Sigmund demonstrated its intelligent camera-based mass surveillance and traffic management systems, which use artificial intelligence.
Switzerland was also represented at the Startup Bazaar by Park Innovaare, an innovations hub set up at the Paul Scherrer Institute, and one of its resident companies, Advanced Accelerator Technologies, which provides compact synchrotron radiation sources, making the (normally space-consuming) technology accessible for factories and laboratories.
Read full reports by the Skolkovo Foundation here and there.
