On April 11 Skolkovo, the international tech hub on the outskirts of Moscow, hosted the second edition of Corporate Innovations, an international conference focused on best practices in tech development and market launch strategies. The event was attended by more than 500 individuals and 150 companies, with more than 70 speakers delivering keynotes.
According to Skolkovo Foundation President Viktor Vekselberg, today the Russian market of innovative solutions is competitive enough. However, even though Russian startups do well in advanced developments, they lack support from inside the country. The authorities in Russia do support them, but to an insufficient extent – and less than the state support of corporations.
These still need to introduce digital technologies and invest more in startups, Vekselberg underlined.
Kirill Kaem, Senior Innovation Vice-President of the Skolkovo Foundation, said the Skolkovo Foundation’s primary task now is not to find promising startups but to help them enter the industry.
Among the startups featured at the conference:
- CardsMobile and Alfa Bank presented an e-wallet app that allows you to digitize your bank cards and virtually put them in your smartphone
- SafeTech was the first to develop and implement an FFS-certified technology that creates qualified digital signatures and manages them through smartphones
- PimPay and Robokassa presented a service that enables small business to obtain loans for development faster and under better terms
- Easy4, a virtual mobile operator, announced the commercial launch of a “global roaming-free space” using SIM cards that uses the capacities of third-party operators in each covered country. The service is primarily meant for frequent business travelers and tourists who seek to avoid high roaming fees.
