The Skolkovo Startup Tour visited the city of Tula last week, where more than 500 scientists and entrepreneurs gathered to pitch their ideas to a panel of experts and investors scouring Russia for the most promising tech startups.
Winners of the Tula stage of the travelling Startup Tour pose with their prizes. Next stop: Almaty. Photo: Sk.ru.
Grigory Lavrukhin, the Tula region’s minister of economic development, said the event was the first brainstorming session on the way to implementing the region’s development strategy through 2030.
Kristina Khodova, head of the Skolkovo Foundation’s cancer centre of excellence within the foundation’s biomedicine cluster, said the standard of the projects pitched within the biological and medical technologies category was impressive.
“Many of the projects presented in the category were a pleasant surprise: their development was thorough, both from a scientific point of view and from a commercial point of view,” she said.
“Nevertheless, the main weaknesses remain underestimating the competitive environment and not paying enough attention to regulatory aspects of medical projects.
“It’s significant that many of the projects had major social import. The winner of the category, the Braille Ring project, helps increase the effectiveness of rehabilitation among people with sight and hearing impairments,” she added.
The jury selected three winners in each of the five categories, as listed below. The winners will attend the Startup Village, the biggest startup conference in Eastern Europe, held at the Skolkovo Foundation in June.
The next stop on the Startup Tour is the Kazakh city of Almaty, which will host the event on March 30-31.
The winners of the Tula stage of the Startup Tour were:
IT category
1st place: Denis Kulakov, for his online project WebSteel
2nd place: Vitaly Savelev, for his project Avrora Driverless Systems
3rd place: Sergei Sergeyev, for his automated planning system of technical processes for thermal spraying at robotized complexes
Energy and energy-efficient technologies category
1st place: Roman Kovalev, for his equipment for reinforcing roadbeds using jet grouting
2nd place: Natalya Kitaeva, for her project to obtain high-temperature insulated materials
3rd place: Lyubov Furda, for her technology for turning polymer waste into hydrocarbons
Biological and medical technologies category
1st place: Artyom Smirnov, for his Braille Ring project
2nd place: Irina Makovik, for her LaserLab project
3rd place: Dmitry Semenok, for his Diazompounds project
Industrial technologies and materials category
1st place: Sergei Minchuk, for his project to make heat-resistant and chemically stable composite components for pipes
2nd place: Mikhail Sudinin, for his technology for cleaning nickel-alloy turbine blades
3rd place: Otari Koyava, for their project MARKLINE
Biotechnologies in agriculture and industry category
1st place: Dmitry Gursky, for his OxyKron Technologies project
2nd place: Vyacheslav Arlyapov, for his device for instantly detecting water pollution
3rd place: Anna Shipunova, for her project to produce one million garden strawberry seedlings