It’s not just millions of rubles and Skolkovo residency on offer for the winners of the Startup Village pitch sessions: Companies from IBM to Google and SAP are lining up to reward the top startups with investment, acceleration programs and entry into other competitions.
More than 350 startups will take part in the pitch sessions at Startup Village on June 2-3, the biggest innovations conference in Russia and Eastern Europe.
The top three startups will take home checks for 3 million, 2 million and 1 million rubles and reap the added benefits of the exposure that comes with victory.
But that’s not where the prizes end:
The pitch sessions will be held near the Skolkovo Technopark Office Center in six categories and several tracks within them. Many of the participant startups won entry to the Startup Village pitch sessions by virtue of winning the pitch competition at their leg of the Startup Tour, which visited 12 cities around Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus from February through April.
Those startups that emerge victorious at Startup Village will have been considered successful applicants for Skolkovo residency, a status that brings a multitude of benefits including zero percent profit tax, access to grants and investment, mentor support, discount office and laboratory space and more.