Last week Severstal, the Russian steel and mining giant, announced the launch of its open innovation portal. Made available in both Russian and English languages, the site features Severstal’s existing initiatives for cooperating with startups, innovative teams and industry experts from across the world.
These include the Severstal tech park, the Steel Tech startup accelerator, two investment vehicles (Severstal Ventures and Severstal Digital Businesses) as well as a variety of technological and R&D challenges.
Thus, innovators can identify the priority areas for cooperation and specific tasks that need to be tackled today. For example, according to the platform, Severstal is seeking now “technologies for separating metal dust from sand and a method of indicating designated pedestrian zones that is resistant to abrasion.” Innovators in this and other fields will have the opportunity to test existing technologies at Severstal’s industrial sites.
Severstal, as several other Russian corporations, has recently accelerated its move to open innovation. The in-house tech park was launched just a year ago and the accelerator half a year ago. As for Severstal Ventures, launched in 2018, it has already “completed a number of exciting transactions,” said Agnes Ritter, Chief Technical Director and Head of the Transformation department at Severstal.
In October 2018 this fund backed Chrysalix RoboValley, an international investment fund focusing on AI and machine learning, IoT, robotics, new materials and other technologies for corporations.
In his home country Alexey Mordashov, Severstal’s main shareholder and chairman, has invested in tech companies far beyond the steel and related industries. Through his investment firm SeverGroup, the billionaire has stakes in such startups as:
- Online education platform Netology ($20 million invested in 2017)
- Applicant tracking system provider Potok (in 2017)
- B2B recruitment marketplace Jungle Jobs (in 2017)
- the free-lancer platform FL.RU (in 2018)
- Healthy lifestyle e-commerce app GetLean (in 2019)
Mordashov also controls a variety of media companies through the holding National Media Group.
