Skolkovo is sending a record 53 resident companies to Helsinki for Slush 2014, tripling its presence at Europe’s biggest startup conference in comparison to previous years.
Slush takes place on November 18-19 in the Finnish capital and brings together around 15,000 investors, company executives, fledgling entrepreneurs and world media.
Skolkovo’s delegation is led by its IT research cluster, which is sending 28 startups. Also on the plane are eight space-themed startups, eight nuclear startups, four biomed and two energy companies.
Pekka Viljakainen, Advisor to the President of the Skolkovo Foundation: “Slush is an international benchmark. We take part in this conference so that the Russian startups could really see other companies, with whom they are competing.”
“Slush is ‘no holiday’. Skolkovo’s startups would have to put in persuasive pitches to prize investment from any of the numerous venture funds at Helsinki. In the center of Slush we have a Russian science café. It’s like a window for all those people who already know something about Russia but who are skeptical, cynical, doubtful about whether Russia can be the right place.”
Peter Vesterbacka, Co-founder, Rovio Mobile: “Over the five years of its existence Slush has become the leading communication site for the international investment community. Top venture investors and business angels know that it is worth coming here to search for the companies with the high-end solutions from the whole Baltics Region”.
At Slush, the Skolkovo Foundation will present its brand-new Soft Landing program for foreign startups that want to test their innovative ideas and enter Russian and foreign markets with the advantages of Skolkovo resident. The Soft Landing program includes:
- Up to 6 months free co-working space;
- Grant support for up to 75% of the budget over 6 months;
- Tax and custom preferences;
- Access to infrastructure and acceleration support.
Skolkovo’s IT cluster is enlarging the number of its foresights to include computer graphics and gamification technologies – Slush has traditionally been a perfect place to look for such projects.
Skolkovo also plans to use Slush as a platform to announce the 2015 Startup Tour, the annual warm-up for the biggest Russian startup conference Startup Village, and officially open the registration for it.
