Startup Tour: Biomed rules in Belarus

Seventeen innovations received recognition at the Minsk stage of the Startup Tour this week, with four projects winning a place in the pitch sessions at Startup Village in Moscow this summer.

The winners of the Belarus pitch sessions. Photo: sk.ru

The jurors – investors and experts from inside the Skolkovo ecosystem and out - had a harder task in selecting the top projects than at any other of the tour’s nine stages preceding the Belarusian capital, where a record 73 innovators pitched their solutions.

Vladimir Khryshanovich. Photo: from personal archive

“Such variety in the projects was really pleasing,” said Skolkovo’s Yuri Nikolsky of the innovations he saw only in biomedical technology, one of five project categories.

“My impressions are very good. Of all the regions visited this year by the Startup Tour, the biomed projects presented in Minsk have been the strongest,” added Nikolsky, the biomed cluster’s director of science, noting that his area was represented by more than half of the total innovations seen in Belarus.

The other categories were IT, innovations for kids, efficient energy and industrial technology.

First place in the biomed track went to a new technique for treating a condition known as hypoparathyroidism through cell transplantation developed by Vladimir Khryshanovich.

“This is a developed method that has already been partially implemented in Belarus,” said Nikolsky. “It is a completely novel approach to treatment. They don’t use this approach in the States or Europe, it’s a genuinely original innovation, and it looks absolutely super.”

The IT track was won by Dmitry Shiroky’s Ovi-bovi estrous identification system for cattle, while first place in the energy track went to Mikhail Vaga’s eponymous hand energy innovation.

Yuri Nikolsky speaking in Minsk. Photo: sk.ru

In the industrial category, Alexander Tratsevsky’s industrial tool strengthening device.

A high-level Skolkovo delegation was headed by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich, while the Belarusian side was represented by the country’s First Deputy Prime Minister Vasily Matyushevsky.

It was the only the second foreign stop on the tour in its five-year history; the first was Almaty, Kazakhstan, last month.

Minsk was the tenth stop on the Startup Tour, which culminates in Startup Village at the Skolkovo Innovation Center on June 2-3. The most promising startups encountered along the tour route are invited to take part in the pitch sessions at Startup Village, where investment and possible residency are on offer to the winners.

The Minsk stage was held at the National Library of Belarus with the support of the government’s State Committee for Science and Technology.

The event’s organizational partners were the Minsk City Technopark, Laboratory of Intellect and the Belarusian Fund for Innovation.

A table showing the top innovations in Belarus. Those in bold are entered into the pitch sessions at Startup Village in Moscow on June 2-3.