• Update available for Startup Village

    Improvements in this version of Startup Village: Record crowds, new setting, creative catering. Like the leading smartphone apps, Startup Village is constantly evolving. The third edition of Russia and Eastern Europe’s biggest startup event is no...

    26 May, 13:03 Nowak David
  • Russian startups mature, but need more tenacity - Pekka Viljakainen

    Russia’s high-tech startups are getting better by the year, but innovators need to be more persistent to commercialize their solutions, said Pekka Viljakainen, advisor to Skolkovo president Victor Vekselberg and an ever-present in three editions of the...

    29 April, 13:03 Nowak David
  • Belarus enthusiastic for Startup Tour – Vasily Belov

    The energy of the participants at the Minsk stage of the Startup Tour is something to behold, said Skolkovo’s senior vice president for innovations Vasily Belov. Vasily Belov in Minsk. Photo: sk.ru The tour is calling in on Belarus this week...

    15 April, 9:23 Nowak David
  • Second foreign assignment for the Startup Tour to kick off in Minsk

    The second foray outside the confines of Russia begins Tuesday for the Startup Tour, which visits the Belarusian capital of Minsk in its quest to uncover and develop the top startups in the CIS. The National Library of Belarus in Minsk, venue for the...

    13 April, 11:06 Nowak David
  • Krasnoyarsk startups told to dumb down their pitches

    The Krasnoyarsk stage of the 2015 Startup Tour ended with two local companies invited to the Startup Village pitch sessions in Moscow and a message for all participating innovators: Dumb down your pitches! The city in eastern Siberia was the ninth stop on...

    07 April, 15:05 Nowak David
  • Startup Tour leaves the Far East, but Skolkovo stays behind

    The Startup Tour may have left Russia’s Far East, but the Skolkovo Foundation remains in the region for the foreseeable future with the Vladivostok branch beginning its official operations on Monday. The winners in Vladivostok. Photo: sk.ru ...

    06 April, 11:48 Nowak David
  • Skolkovo opens Far East branch in Vladivostok

    Skolkovo Foundation chairman Andrei Burenin on Thursday announced the opening of a Skolkovo branch in Vladivostok to accelerate the commercialization of new technology from all over Russia’s Far East. Speaking at the eighth stage of the Russian Startup...

    02 April, 10:40 Nowak David
  • Dvorkovich: Startup Tour 2016 to include Armenia, Kyrgyzstan

    The expansion of Russia’s biggest innovations roadshow shows no signs of abating, with Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich saying the Startup Tour is to take in Armenia and Kyrgyzstan next year. The stops on this year's Startup Tour. ...

    01 April, 16:31 Nowak David
  • Catalyzing angel investment in Almaty

    ALMATY, Kazakhstan - It’s springtime in downtown Almaty, though winter is blowing its last frigid gusts off the snowy peaks of the Zailiyskiy Alatau mountain range and around the city's skyscrapers and Soviet-built housing blocks. At a downtown...

    30 March, 12:05 Nowak David
  • St. Petersburg delights with cow pregnancy tests and ‘Internet of Vegetables’

    A wind generator, a cow pregnancy test and the curiously titled Internet of Vegetables were among the victors in the pitch contest at the seventh stage of the Startup Tour, which wrapped up in St. Petersburg this week. The winners of the pitch sessions...

    27 March, 9:57 Nowak David
  • A forum of robots, a meeting of minds

    The third Skolkovo Robotics International Conference was a runaway success, attracting a wide array of participants from all corners of the planet and, critically, encouraging the discipline to flourish domestically. The March 20-22 event at the Skolkovo...

    24 March, 11:16 Nowak David
  • 10 simple rules for international success

    ALMATY, Kazakhstan – As part of the March 19-20 Startup Tour in Kazakhstan’s second city, Skolkovo’s startup guru Pekka Viljakainen gave a master-class on initiating a high-tech business. During the Finn’s 35-minute presentation at the...

    24 March, 9:54 Nowak David
  • Startup Tour opens door to Skolkovo ecosystem in Kazakhstan

    ALMATY, Kazakhstan - The Kazakh stage of the Startup Tour concluded on Friday with several innovations winning a place at the Startup Village in June and, perhaps more significantly, the foundations put in place for of a new era of high-tech cooperation between...

    20 March, 17:17 Nowak David
  • A Russian-Kazakh pipeline for oil and gas cooperation

    Access to clients such as Gazprom and Rosneft is on offer for Kazakh startups that join the Skolkovo ecosystem, said the executive director of the foundation’s Energy Cluster, Nikolai Grachev, at a roundtable in Almaty on Thursday. Nikolai Grachev...

    19 March, 11:43 Nowak David
  • ‘A wonderful day to start a business’

    ALMATY, Kazakhstan - Pekka Viljakainen is sick to the back teeth of hearing people blame the lack of startups on the financial crisis. A national Kazakh television network interviews Pekka Viljakainen. Photo: sk.ru The Finnish tech entrepreneur...

    19 March, 9:14 Nowak David
  • Top Kazakh minister opens Startup Tour in Almaty

    ALMATY - Kazakhstan’s Minister for Investment and Development Asset Issekeshev raised the curtain Thursday on the sixth leg of the Russian Startup Tour - and first to take place abroad – with a call to transform Almaty into a major innovations hub...

    19 March, 8:29 Nowak David
  • The day the Russian Startup Tour ceases to be ‘Russian’

    A key message that Skolkovo transmits its startups is the need to expand into new territories. Now it is leading by example: This week, Russia’s biggest innovations roadshow ventures abroad for the first time in its five-year history. Almaty - the...

    13 March, 14:02 Nowak David
  • From the Urals with innovations: Four teams make Startup Village 2015

    The fifth stage of the Russian Startup Tour culminated this week with four teams from Yekaterinburg winning an invitation to the Startup Village in Moscow. The finalists in Yekaterinburg. Photo: sk.ru The capital of the Ural Mountains region was...

    13 March, 10:25 Nowak David
  • Russian Startup Tour reaches Kazan

    More than 140 startups registered an interest to take part in the Kazan stage of the Russian Startup Tour, the fourth stop on the innovations roadshow that runs Tuesday and Wednesday in the Tatarstan capital. The Kazan Kremlin. Photo: flickr The...

    02 March, 10:43 Nowak David
  • Intel partners Startup Tour, Startup Village

    U.S. tech giant Intel on Tuesday announced it had become a partner to the Russian Startup Tour and the summer's Startup Village, two of Russia’s most important events to encourage the growth of new high-tech companies. Intel's Valery Cherepennikov...

    17 February, 13:56 Nowak David
  • Dvorkovich praises Tomsk as city that ‘has it all’

    With its abundance of natural resources and formidable intellectual capital, Tomsk is a city that is perfectly placed to speed the diversification of the Russian economy through, Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich said on stage two of the Russian Startup...

    11 February, 11:07 Nowak David
  • ‘Got an idea? We’ve got your back,’ Russian startups told

    Victor Vekselberg took to the regions on Tuesday to convey an important message to Russia’s startup community: If you have an idea for an innovation, you’ve got Skolkovo’s support. Victor Vekselberg addressing startups in Rostov-on-Don...

    03 February, 11:43 Nowak David