On July 31, 2012 the Skolkovo Foundation held its first full scale pitch session and investor networking event. The networking event and pitch session was held in a classic format: short, strictly limited in time presentations of business plans (pitches) were followed by individual meetings and networking in an informal environment. Alexander Lupachev, head of Skolkovo’s Investment Service evaluated the event positively, as more than 50 participants from both sides had shown up, “it’s a good result for first event of this kind,” he said.
The list of investors included 23 venture funds and investment companies, as well as number of corporations, interested in cooperating with Russian high-tech startups – Skolkovo residents. Among them Bioprocess Capital, Quadriga, Runa Capital, Russia Partners, Leader asset management company, Maxwell Capital and some others. Representatives of IT and Biomed clusters prevailed during pitch session, and energy efficiency and nuclear technologies clusters representatives also made their pitches.
As residents themselves said after the event, the networking was useful for them. As the CEO and the founder of the Armour Therapeutics Josh Silvertown said, “at some events of this kind you never know if investors have shown up, but here it’s clear that they are present.” And, as Alexei Beltyukov, senior vice-president in charge of development and commercialization said, for Skolkovo’s start-uppers the pitch session was a very a very important one, “essential for understanding, what kind of questions venture investors ask.” And, as Alexander Lupachev noted, “considerable number of investors in handed-out questionnaires replied that they got interested to develop further dialog with chosen by them residents.” As he said, “it indicates that the first pitch session was a practical dialog.” Among those projects, offered for investors, were innovation technologies in oncology, brain treatment, compact built-in mobile radiation dosimeter for smartphones, artificial synthetic oil from wellhead gas and others.
Ed Kanalosh, the IR director of the foundation, said that, to his mind star-uppers “presented themselves even in a too modest way”. “As we are talking about companies, which were chosen by the Silicon Valley business analysts’ poll, they already generate millions of rubles of monetary turnover, received approval of the Foundation’s grants committee, and one of them is even getting ready for the IPO,” he reminded. Kalosh also stressed that as of today venture funds have already expressed their interest to 61 Skolkovo’s resident, and seven publically declared deals have already taken place. In some of them such high profile investors, as Esther Dyson, took part. And one of venture funds, Quadriga, has already fixed its profit after having sold its stake in a startup to a strategic investor – Gazprombank.
Alexander Lupachev said to Sk.ru that Skolkovo plans to carry out such events for investors on a regular basis. He also stated that there will be two new formats for such events introduced soon: a more narrow, clusters focused specialized pitch-sessions and bilateral meetings of residents and investors, in which the Foundation will serve as a consultancy.