On December 11, 2013, the registration for the All-Russian Startup Tour-2014 was opened at the website: rst.startupvillage.ru. The Tour isn’t just Skolkovo’s project. In fact, it’s a joint initiative of several development institutions, including the Skolkovo Foundation, the Russian Venture Company, Federal Agency for Youth Affairs, JSC “Rusnano”. The Foundation for Assistance to Small Innovative Enterprises in Science and Technology and the Association of Innovative Regions of Russia also take an active part in the preparation for the Tour. The Event is supported by the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation as well as by the Ministry of Communications and Mass Media of the Russian Federation, as the head of the Strategy Department of the Skolkovo Foundation Yekaterina Inozemtseva told Sk.ru.
The goal of the All-Russian startup tour is to form in each city, which it plans to visit, the local startup community of young talented entrepreneurs and authors of innovative projects, investors, representatives of technoparks, leading regional universities as well as scientific institutions. Within the framework of the Tour’s events the development institutions will also inform researchers, entrepreneurs and scientists, engaged in the high-tech product development aimed to its further commercialization, on existing support and promotion programs, funding opportunities granted by development institutions, federal and regional authorities. There will also be a competitive selection of best regional high-tech start-up companies for further participation in the Annual All-Russia Conference of Entrepreneurs and Innovators Startup Village, which will take place on June 2-3, 2014 on the territory of the Skolkovo Innovation Center.
This is not the first start-up tour, the history of this event began in 2011. The Skolkovo Foundation is involved in the project since 2013. In 2013, from March 18 to April 29, experts and mentors delivered workshops in 15 Russian cities, which were attended by more than 3,500 young entrepreneurs, scientists, authors of innovative projects.
The organizers of the All-Russian Startup Tour are as follows: the Skolkovo Foundation, Zvorykin project, JSC “RVC” in partnership with the Foundation for Assistance to Small Innovative Enterprises in Science and Technology; Moscow School of Management “Skolkovo”, Business Community “Skolkovo”; Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Skoltech), CJSC “VTB Capital”; Technopark “Skolkovo”, Agency for Strategic Initiatives (ASI), the Association of Innovative Regions of Russia (AIRR); leading Finland Business Accelerator “Startup Sauna”; Federal Contest of University Technology Projects “TechnoCup”. The project is supported by the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Communications and Mass Media of the Russian Federation, the Federal Agency for Youth Affairs.
To participate in the training events of the All-Russian Startup Tour, the regional startups presented over 600 innovative projects, and 146 projects were selected for the presentation and discussion at coaching-sessions. The start-up teams were invited to participate in federal events of the All-Russian Startup Tour’s organizers and partners, and many of the startups - received proposals from development institutions for promoting and fundraising.
The All-Russian Startup Tour Program was attended by Naberezhnye Chelny, Ufa, Tyumen, Omsk, Samara, Vladivostok, Krasnoyarsk, Tomsk, Novosibirsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Rostov-on-Don, Astrakhan, Kaluga, Belgorod, Kaliningrad.
Summing up the project results, Pekka Viljakainen, a mastermind of the All-Russian Startup Tour, the Advisor to the President of the Skolkovo Foundation, noted how much things have changed in the Russian regions in the five years since he first started working with Russian startups: “There is no town, that could not surprise us - powerful projects, active startup community, strong academic base or infrastructure. But the most important thing – the youth interest in the innovation has increased. In each city, we were met by a full audience of young entrepreneurs. We gave more than 150 interviews and commentaries to regional journalists, we answered more than 400 questions from the audience, and all these issues were practical, professional, with an eye on a specific result. They feel motivated people to shape their future, regardless of residence place and initial conditions”.
Most projects presented in the All-Russian Startup Tour were for IT and business solution (63) and instrument engineering (36). There were also presented projects in the health care (12), education, power industry, auto industry, food processing, crop production.
The Startup Village 2013 was attended by over 40 teams, which took part in the Tour 2013, and 2 teams of them were announced the finalists. But the main thing - the winner of the SUV 2013 became the Company Bravo Motors from Astrakhan, which also participated in the Tour 2013.
The objectives, set by the organizers and partners of the All-Russian Startup Tour, are as fllows: to lay the foundation for a systematic, quality search and promotion of new regional projects; to overcome the inertia of talented regional authors of innovation, to show them the whole range of possibilities that exist in the current market for the development of innovative projects - from start-up teams training, legal, infrastructure support to financing at all stages of the project. To achieve these objectives the All-Russian Startup Tour Program in each city included presentations by the organizers and partners of the project, where the experts told in detail how and at what project stage the start-up team can use the resources of development institutions, as well as master classes, regional project presentations, submitted application to participate in the Tour pitch sessions and approved by expert council, group counseling and informal communication among participants with experts, coaching training to develop start-up teams competence and the business community formation business games.
The All-Russian Startup Tour Events can be attended by innovative projects authors, start-up teams, entrepreneurs, investors, students and lecturers of specialized universities, representatives of regional research institutions applied for the registration on the website rst.startupvillage.ru. On the website it is also possible to refer to the program on cities, apply for the project pre-selection to the expert council.
This year the Tour will take place in 26 cities and will begin on January 20, 2014 in Tolyatti and ends on April 18, 2014 in St. Petersburg.
The winners according to the performances evaluation results by a competent jury, consisting of representatives of development institutions, regional authorities and the investment community, will have the opportunity to speak at Startup Village in 2014, which will be held at the Skolkovo Innovation Centre on June 2-3, 2014.
Adapted from the Event organizers
