The RVC Infrafund has teamed up with a group of yet-undisclosed private investors to jointly finance the setup of the Digital Port Tech Entrepreneurship Center in the city of Perm in the West Urals.
The 2000-sq. meter facility is expected to offer young local innovative teams and startups both office space and a range of services to support the development of high tech businesses, such as IT outsourcing, training programs in technology entrepreneurship, marketing support, IP protection advice, search for investors, bookkeeping, and HR assistance, among others.
In 2014 the Digital Port team will focus on putting together targeted events in the framework of nationwide tech startup-oriented competitions, including BIT, the Camp IT Summer School, the Digital Village Forum and others.
Digital Port’s short-term plans also include the building of partnerships with leading Russian regional universities, VC investors and key players in the high tech market.
Fostering a national network of entrepreneurship centers is an “investment priority” for the RVC Infrafund, said Infrafund CEO Alexander Loktev, noting the already operational Fabrika IT Park in Astrakhan, in the Lower Volga area, and other regional projects as a “test-bench” to help fine tune similar programs to come.
Andrey Khusid, one of the Digital Port Perm project initiators, hopes to “concentrate around Digital Port the region’s best tech companies, enabling them to get trained as a team and enter the global market.”
The Infrafund is one of the funds backed by RVC (formerly Russian Venture Company), the Russian state’s investment arm to support innovation.
Source: RVC
