HELSINKI, Finland - Russia’s first space entrepreneur says it’s judgment day for his country’s startup industry.
Speaking to sk.ru on the sidelines of Europe’s biggest tech conference, Slush 2014 in Helsinki, Mikhail Kokorich said the current political climate will sort the wheat from the chaff among Russia’s startups.
“I think that now it is like judgment day for the Russian startup industry,” said Kokorich, the CEO of Dauria Aerospace.
Dauria Aerospace CEO Mikhail Kokorich visiting the Skolkovo stand at Slush 2014 in Helsinki. Photo: sk.ru.
“Most big investors, of course, are holding off on investing in Russia right now. For them there’s the extra uncertainty factor, they don’t know the investment prospects for the future,” Kokorich said.
“On one hand, this is bad for the Russian startup industry, which had been growing and even blossoming here and there. The amount of money raised [in Russia] was more than anywhere else in Europe,” he said.
“But on the other hand, sometimes you need to let the foam settle on the beer. A startup is not only about raising cash, it’s about developing a profitable business. Ultimately, China was also an enfant terrible in its day, and now look at it,” he added.
Dauria recently made history by sending three satellites into orbit, officially bringing Russia into the new space economy of private operators. Before Dauria and a partner company Sputnix, the Russian space program had been solely a state-backed enterprise.
The company is also launching a new satellite imaging cloud service that allows clients to track changes to terrain and vegetation for a variety of purposes.
Dauria Geo advertises “fast and easy access to satellite imagery and rich data layers that feed directly into your applications and decision tools.”
By comparing live imagery with images from Dauria’s vast archive, hooking up to the cloud will allow users to track storm damage, reveal the extent of deforestation and assess costs prior to construction in remote areas, for example.
The focus is on the easy integration of the data gleaned from satellites into new or existing software applications.
Dauria has offices all over the world and conducts a significant amount of research at Skolkovo through its R&D spinoff, Dauria Satellite Systems.
Dauria is present in Munich and at the NASA Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley.
Slush is a two-day event in Helsinki brings together 14,000 investors, company executives, fledgling entrepreneurs, media, and other stakeholders from 79 countries.
A record 53 Skolkovo resident companies have traveled to Helsinki, a delegation three times greater than last year’s.