Startup Tour makes final stop of 2015 in Krasnogorsk

KRASNOGORSK, Moscow Region - Russia's biggest innovations roadshow wound up last week in the Moscow region town of Krasnogorsk.

Moscow Region Government headquarters in Krasnogorsk. Photo: sk.ru

The Startup Tour, whose goal is to stimulate high-tech innovations across the country and beyond, is organized by the Skolkovo Foundation as the lead-up event to Startup Village in Moscow on June 2-3.

Krasnogorsk was the 12^th and final stop on the tour, which for the first time this year took in Kazakhstan and Belarus on its journey around the CIS that went as far as Vladivostok in the east and Minsk in the west.

"Podmoskovye is the only region in Russia that has eight innovation cities," said Deputy Moscow Region Prime Minister Denis Butsaev in opening remarks, referring to high-tech development zones around the country that get special government support. There are a total of 13 such zones around Russia.

"These were created as centers of development in different sectors and hold within them unique competencies that we believe are still untapped," Butsaev added. 

In Krasnogorsk, 58 innovators had the chance to pitch their products and services to a Skolkovo panel that decided which get to enter the pitch contest at Startup Village.

They competed Thursday in five tracks: IT, industrial technology, biomedical, efficient energy, and innovations for kids, while Wednesday was devoted to the so-called educational section of the tour – master-classes, round tables and panel discussions all geared toward encouraging innovation.

The top IT project was adjudged to have been Vladimir Konev's BlackBeeTrack; while Sergei Agafonov took top place in the biomed track with an innovation he called DIVO Nebulizer. In the industrial, energy and children's categories, the respective winners were Igor Belashov, Pavel Sokolovsky and Vitaly Bardalim. 

Konev, Belashov, Sokolovsky and Alexander Mamykin, who came second in the biomed category, all won direct entry to the Startup Village pitch contest plus 1 million rubles from the Fund for Developing Small High-Tech Enterprises. A comprehensive breakdown of the prizes can be found in the table below.

Krasnogorsk is a town of its own with a population of about 100,000, but it is de facto merged with Moscow owing to its close proximity on the northwestern fringes of the orbital ring road. It is intimately associated with science and innovation as the home of the Krasnogorsk Mechanical Factory that produced the legendary Zorki photography cameras. The town refers to this in its coat of arms, which features a lens.

The winners of the pitch sessions in Krasnogorsk. Photo: sk.ru

The 12th stage of the Startup Tour was held at the Moscow Region Government headquarters on the banks of the Moscow river. 

The other stops on the tour have been Rostov-on-Don, Tomsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan, Ekaterinburg, Almaty, St. Petersburg, Vladivostok, Krasnoyarsk, Minsk and Ufa. 

Skolkovo frequently leaves a legacy of cooperation behind in every city, and Krasnogorsk appears to be no exception. Denis Butsaev said the opportunity was simply too good to pass up.

"We see how intensively Skolkovo nurtures the ideas and innovations that pop up all around the country," he said. "In this regard, the Moscow Region will not be an outsider. Already we have a number of Skolkovo resident companies and a number of other applications to join it from this region," Butsaev added. "From our side, we are ready to take a very active part in all initiatives that will be conducted by the [Skolkovo] Foundation and by concrete companies," he said.

A table showing the top places in each category. Those in bold enter the Startup Village pitch contest; the asterisked projects are given a 1 million ruble investment from the Fund for Developing Small High-Tech Enterprises.