One of the most significant and important events for local startups – XV Russian and X Kazan Venture Fairs, which are the largest in Russia pads for innovative technology companies and professional participants in the industry of direct and venture investment- are being held in Kazan from 23 to 24 April 2015. The event of such huge scale requires from its participants a maximum preparation for presentations to investors from around the world. With this end in Kazan has been created a special program Kazan Boot Camp, designed to teach and configure the participants-exhibitors of jubilee venture fairs for a successful presentation to potential investors. The holding in the capital of Tatarstan the XV Russian and X Kazan Venture Fairs is probably the most important investment event in the country in 2015, recognized by both Russian and foreign business community. Fairs, organized and conducted by the Investment and Venture Fund of the Republic of Tatarstan jointly with the Russian Venture Capital Association (RVCA), will contribute to the development of venture investment system in Russia, attracting the attention of a wide range of investors to the Russian innovative companies, as well as attracting investments in the technology business.
This year, as in the past, Kazan Venture Fair was opened by Kazan Boot Camp, which is an accelerator – for four days representatives of several leading venture capital funds of the United States and Europe were conducting master classes and selected the best team from the participants. The main organizer of Kazan Boot Camp is the Tatarstan company accelerator Pulsar Venture Capital, which was established in 2009 by the Investment and Venture Fund of RT. The accelerator works with projects on the early stages in the field of IT, energy efficiency, new materials, industrial innovation in all regions of Russia and on international markets. The main goal of Pulsar Venture Capital is to build effective communication between the major world centers of innovation, knowledge-based organizations and venture capital investors, as well as to create a mechanism for attracting investment, commercialization of projects and output technologies to international markets. Kazan Boot Camp in this sense is one of the tools to attract direct venture capital investment.
“From 20 to 23 April in the framework of the XV Russian and X Kazan Venture Fairs has been held preparatory session for startups. One of the main elements of Kazan Venture Fair is the presentation of companies from all over Russia and Tatarstan, which were selected on several previous stages for investors. And we have prepared them for it within three days”.
“In order to dispose them to this significant, first of all, for them, the presentation, we have invited to Kazan leading partners from Russia and other countries”, – said CEO of accelerator company Pulsar Venture Capital Pavel Korolev. So, in Kazan Boot Camp have involved invited experts of venture capital market from USA, Singapore, Europe, Finland and some other countries. Including such leading experts as Marvin Liao (500 startups, USA), John Soberg (CFA ManagingPartner, Expansive Ventures), Paolo Barello (App Campus, Finland), Lars Buch (Startup Boot Camp, UK).
According to Pavel Korolev, Kazan Boot Camp have focus on the fact that within three days startups get as much practical advices from investors both domestic and foreign market, so all this to help them to better tune in the development of their business projects and defend it on the Kazan Venture Fair.
Note, for three days in Kazan Boot Camp was also attended by regional Tatarstan experts – mainly from the team of Pulsar Venture Capital. Among them, for example, Pavel Korolev, Sergey Mitrofanov, who is widely known for his work on building brands for domestic startups, Sergey is Advisor for the Development of the General Director of the Pulsar. Among the invited experts was Vel Jerdes (Pulsar Venture Capital), which represents the interests of the Tatarstan company accelerator in “Silicon Valley”. “We have tried to collect on this site all of our partners, so that in three days the brain of the guys could get a tremendous intellectual impact, which would help them find support from not only Russian players in the venture capital market, but also international”, - noted Pavel Korolev. More than 300 companies from across the country have applied on the X Kazan Venture Fair this year. All of them have passed through a strict selection of the Investment and Venture Fund of the Republic of Tatarstan, the Russian Venture Company, the Russian Venture Capital Association, Cisco and directly through Pulsar Venture Capital. The result of the selection process was the admission of 38 companies to participate as exhibitors at the Venture Fair in Kazan. Geography of the presented projects - Kazan, Naberezhnye Chelny, Yelabuga, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Samara, Krasnoyarsk, Yekaterinburg, Izhevsk and other cities.
During the time of holding Kazan Boot Camp program for startups were being held lectures, seminars, workshops, networking, and other training modules and coaching systems on the development of business models, scientific and technological development of projects, legal aspects, investment attraction, business planning, marketing, PR and many other topics that are necessary for the successful development of the innovative project. Of particular importance and attention were given to individual work with each project to identify strengths and weaknesses, and the formation of a roadmap and business plan of each project. A feature of the accelerator is that the participants will be given a full and comprehensive training. For these purposes, there were created two specialized classes - for IT companies and Industrial, associated more with industrial lines of business. And, of course, the uniqueness of the program Kazan Boot Camp is that it is completely free and is open to all companies-exhibitors of jubilee Venture Fairs, as well as other participants-entrepreneurs in the areas of IT and Industrial (hardware, Internet of things, industrial innovation, and so on) who have registered for training. The total number of participants of Boot Camp was 49 companies.
The results of the Kazan Boot Camp will be announced on April 23, 2015 at a ceremony of awarding of the Russian and Kazan Venture Fairs. The final part of the program will be investment session, which includes: a pitch session (a small 5-minute speech-presentation) for the five best teams in front of 40 investors; a networking-mixer for further communication between startups and investors; a round table on the future of acceleration programs; and, of course, the determination of the winners and the awards ceremony. “If a few companies will receive funding is a good thing. This can be considered a great indicator. Because such events help to move from level of basic idea to the level of real product”, - said Pavel Korolev. It should be noted that last year Pulsar Venture Capital, created by the Investment and Venture Fund of Tatarstan, conducted two acceleration programs. One program was attended by about 40 companies, of which exactly half - 20 companies – have received investment proposals. 25 percent of companies were able to reach the first sales, and 15 percent have received partnership offers from major corporations. In another acceleration program from 10 companies, selected by Pulsar Venture Capital, one has entered the international market, one has received a major offer from foreign technology corporation, as a result, it has received a very serious investment, and a few companies have get the opportunity to introduce in Russia and in the USA. In addition, two portfolio companies of Pulsar Venture Capital at the moment are an American company 500 startups. These companies have been in the business accelerator a preparation program and are already out with their product to the global market.
“You have to understand that our main goal and objective in the framework of Kazan Boot Camp is to make the upcoming venture fair is not easy “hangout” place, but the most useful for those companies that will be represented there. And this can only be done at the expense of having to bring the right people to properly prepared company. And, in fact, our goal is to best prepare the company to an active conversation with the investor. Here we are talking not only about commercial objective related to the fact that Tatarstan or Russian companies have found on the Kazan Venture Fair investors, partners, but also about the need to create a vision of startups, where to go next. Experience, for example, last year's Kazan Venture Fair has shown us that this goal is achievable. Some companies have attracted investments, and some of them has already entered the international market”, - emphasized Pavel Korolev. Thus, it is possible to say that participation in the XV Russian and X Kazan Venture Fairs, organized by the Investment and Venture Fund of Tatarstan and the Russian Venture Capital Association, held in Kazan from 23 to 24 April 2015, may become a turning point in the development of many innovative business projects.
Information agency “Tatar-inform”
