On 26 October 2012 the VC Day investment forum took place at Technopark Skolkovo. The event proved that the VC Day is an effective format of cooperation between startup companies and investors.
The remarkable thing is that in the investment forum, there participated both leading Russian and foreign investors and representatives of innovative organizations, some of which specifically arrived to the forum from abroad: from Germany, Finland. This is an important factor that such formats of business communication and also Russian innovation projects, which is most important, are of interest to the international community. From the point of view of Skolkovo companies, this investment forum as well as other Technopark international programs are aimed at the expansion of valuable business contacts for the startups and the opportunity to find, among other things, international partnerscomments Аnna Nikinа, Head of Development, International Programs at Skolkovo TechnoPark and the organizer of the investment forum.
During the event 16 startup companies had an opportunity to present their projects to investors. These companies are Technopark Skolkovo and ‘Ingria’ Technopark residents, together with whom the event was organized. Prior to the investment forum, startups underwent training and participated in pitch-sessions, including those under the leadership of Steinar Korsmo, President of the international organization Seed Forum, and Technopark Skolkovo business-coaches. Within the framework of the VC Day, there were held a few meeting formats: pitch-session (elevator pitch), project presentations, and what was most sought after – individual meetings between companies and investors.
Skolkovo projects are interesting, because their inventors realize that the project exists both for them and for the investor – they think more about economics, than just about the invention itselfAleksandr Antipov, Deputy Director, venture capital investments, CJSC ‘Leader’
It’s good that Skolkovo holds such events for investors. The possibility to look at the best Skolkovo projects, their progress and achievements is very useful for potential deals. The quality of presentations is high which indicates solid preparation. We will definitely participate in future. This time we sent 2 our representatives to the VC Day, which is for us too much for one (…) eventGaidar Magdanurov, Investment director, Runa Capital, quotation
It is necessary to hold such meetings; it’s very useful to find out which projects appearSergey Toporov, investment manager, Leta Group
Organization for the event was most optimal: short presentations and what is most important, the opportunity to communicate with projects, have a look at the representatives of the team with which you plan to cooperate, privately ask questions which you will never ask in front of the audience.
In Skolkovo we have already been able to find for ourselves one gem (investment into Displair) and hope there will be more!
An interesting distinctive feature of the VC Day was the fact that not only IT-projects which are numerous at the market, were presented, but also projects from other spheres including biotechnologies, power-generation and energy saving, chemistry and petroleum chemistry, medical devices, mechanical engineering, instrumentation technology and electronics. ‘Technical projects possess high export potential, besides, foreign investors pay special attention to themsays Dmitriy Stepkin, Director, ‘Ingria’ business-incubator
It’s useful, interesting and what is most important – it’s effective. A few venture capital funds spoke with us which is essential to our current stage, since at the present moment we are in need of an investor for the successful further development of the project. Now we are at the seed stage, we are developing a universal autopilot for transportation facilities that will decrease production costs and increase the safety of traffic. For us the VC Day event which took place at Technopark Skolkovo became one of the first sites where we presented ourselvesSergey Maltsev, General Director, RoboCV LLC
I liked the presented participation format, when we could make a presentation of our project and in the case of interest, the investors would make an appointment with us at their booths after all presentations. This is economy of time for all the process participants: if the idea is suitable, we communicate, if not – we don’t spend time on that. For today three investors got interested in our project after this event, we continue conducting the dialogue with themYuliya Titova, Development Director, ‘Protection Technology Research’, LLC
Please visit the site http://investors.sk.ru for the up-to-date information about future investment events, as well as trainings, during which companies are trained to present themselves and their projects to Russian and foreign investors.
Аnna Nikinа Head of Development, International Programs T +7 (495) 967 0148 ext.2491 E an(at)sk.ru
Calendar of international programs: http://international.sk.ru