In its seventh edition on May 29-30, Startup Village – the largest tech entrepreneurship event in Russia and neighboring countries – was held at the Skolkovo Innovation Center. More than 10,000 people from 85 countries of the world, including over a thousand from the local and international investment community, attended the event.
The business program included some 150 events dedicated to innovation in its various business dimensions. The Startup Bazaar exhibition showcased 200 innovative companies.
“Startup Village is a living environment that generates new relationships and partnerships across all the business community,” underlined Viktor Vekselberg, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Skolkovo Foundation.
In a panel discussion about “Startup Against The Machine: Lean, Corporate, VC” representatives of top accelerators and the Skolkovo Foundation talked about they way they select and help the best projects.
Brian Frumberg, founder of US accelerator VentureOut, said: “All startups need to understand that the market entry approach is different in each country. In Russia, for example, certain steps are needed, and in the USA steps are completely different. We have been working in Russia for a long time and highly appreciate the cooperation experience with the Skolkovo Foundation. There are a lot of wonderful startups here, we have already confirmed a partnership with one of them.”
“Accelerators have different selection programs and methods, but they are all united by one goal: help tech companies generate revenue. The ecosystem of the Skolkovo Innovation Center is ready to cooperate with any foreign teams – both accelerators and the startups. We want to help to bring Russian tech to international markets as well as to open Russia to foreign technological innovations,” stated Arkady Dvorkovich, Chairman of the Skolkovo Foundation.
From early-stage to mature companies
Startup Village 2019 also featured pitches of innovative companies. Winners were selected in two categories: ‘Early Stage Projects’ and ‘Tech Companies.’
The winners of the Tech Companies contest were:
- 1st place – Microneedle Industrial, which develops of bio-soluble micro needle applicators for painless transdermal delivery of vaccines and medicinal components (won 5 million rubles);
- 2nd place – YUSCAN Rus, offering a solution for monitoring references in Russian and English speaking social media with social CRM and visual insights capabilities (won 3 million rubles);
- 3rd place – Brain Beat, which develops a non-invasive blood glucose meter to improve the life quality of diabetics (2 million rubles).
Early Stage Projects:
- 1st place – Grigor Grigoryan‘s project “Portable mobile visual field analyzer based on the virtual reality system” (2 million rubles);
- 2nd place – Grigory Larkin’s project “Multi-purpose Structural Roll of Concrete” (1.5 million rubles);
- 3rd place – Evgeny Kostyushkov’s project MedVR, developer of simulators based on VR (1 million rubles).
- Special prize for Sputnik, a company which presented its “Technologies for a Smart City,” and will benefit from a coaching session from Tsifra to enter the international market.
Igor Bogachev, CEO of Tsifra, said: “For companies with an interesting product, there is always an investor. If a startup has the right business model and an export-oriented product no investor will be indifferent. Events like these pitch-presentations do help companies like us find quickly promising technologies and teams. Over the past year, we invested more than 3 billion rubles in residents of Skolkovo.”
Startup Village also featured the finale of the Start-SUV competition, in its fifth edition under the auspices of the Innovations Assistance Foundation. This year, 15 innovators from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Samara, Chelyabinsk, Kemerovo, Leningrad, Omsk or their regions, as well as from the Republic of Sakha and Altai in Siberia were distinguished. Each project received 2 million rubles in funding under the Start program.
