The winners of the far eastern stage of the Skolkovo Foundation’s Startup Tour have been announced in Vladivostok, with projects in the biomedicine category leading the way.
About 120 projects were presented to the jury in the categories of IT, industrial technology and new materials, medicine, energy and biotechnology from all nine regions of Russia’s vast far eastern federal district, where a panel of experts is on the lookout for promising tech startups.
Participants of the Startup Tour in the far eastern port of Vladivostok. Photo: Sk.ru.
Kamila Zarubina, a project manager within Skolkovo’s biomedicine cluster, said she had been deeply impressed by the projects presented in the Biological and Medical Technologies category.
“It’s probably partly due to the fact that there’s a medical centre within the Far Eastern Federal University (DVFU), where half the projects presented were from,” she said.
“The standard of the projects in Vladivostok was, I would say, the highest I’ve seen in three years of taking part in the Startup Tour,” she added.
The first place in the biomedicine category was awarded to a project from the DVFU titled “Unfolding Electrode” – the first Russian neurostimulator that can be used in the event of a ruptured aneurysm or brain disease.
The electrode is implanted in the vital systems of the brain and enables the restoration of the blood supply to the brain.
“It’s a really well developed project,” said Zarubina. “It’s run by the head doctor of the DVFU medical centre, and it was presented by a post-graduate student.”
The team behind the electrode plans to become a Skolkovo resident.
The second place was awarded to a project titled “3D Printing in Prosthetics,” whose team makes prosthetic hands.
“This is a really good young team from Khabarovsk that’s still in its early stages,” said Zarubina.
“It’s still at the stage of computer modelling – it’s more bio-IT at the moment. We advised them to take on a clinician, since so far they’re mostly IT technicians. They’re also planning to become a Skolkovo resident,” she added.
Kamila Zarubina said the standard of projects in Vladivostok was the highest she had seen in three years of attending the Startup Tour.
Third place was taken by a project called “Urodynamic Equipment” designed by a team from Vladivostok that is already a resident of Skolkovo’s IT cluster.
“They make a cloud system for assessments of urinary tract infections,” said Zarubina. “The system includes a device that can be used at home to measure the flow of urine, which is important in assessing the effect of various medicines on illnesses such as prostatic hyperplasia and other conditions – both in men and women,” she explained.
The Skolkovo Startup Tour will next visit the city of Novosibirsk on February 9-10. In total it will visit 11 Russian cities, as well as the Belarussian capital Minsk and the Kazakh city of Almaty. The winners in each region will attend the Startup Village held at Skolkovo in June, attended by investors from around the world.
The other winners of the far eastern stage of the Startup Tour were:
Biotechnology in Agriculture and Industry:
Industrial Technology and Materials:
Energy and Energy-Efficient Technologies:
IT: