Nationwide roadshow of the Russian Startup Tour took center stage today in the capital of Bashkortostan, Ufa, organized by state institutes for development with the aim to identify and support the best regional startups.
Ufa pleased representatives of the institutes with several promising startups, including: project “A2B” (cloud computing), an internet banking project “CloudDBO”, a project related to polymer fingerprint modules “PDFfingerprint” as well as projects in the field of anti-vibration and a project which develops a technology for the drilling in deep channels, and other projects.
The head of "Zvorykinsky project", Sergei Blintsov, and the head of the project "Young Professionals", Denis Gusev, spoke before an audience of representatives from the innovation community in Ufa. "Skolkovo" Fund was represented by the advisor to the President of the Fund, Pekka Viljakainen, and project manager of the commercialization team, Anton Voropaev.
From the government of Bashkortostan the Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic gave an inspiring speech to the startups. Also the rector of the Ufa State Aviation Technical University addressed the young entrepreneurs. Speakers from the fund for promotion of small enterprises in the scientific and technical field ("Bortnik Fund") invited startups to participate in the Fund’s programs, "Umnik”" and "Start", and a representative of RVC, Olga Belokoneva, invited to participate in project MassChallenge.
Pekka Viljakainen commented in an interview with the regional news agency "Bashinform" about the importance for the development of an entrepreneurial spirit in Ufa:
In order for Ufa to develop it’s necessary to attract investments and a greater interest from young entrepreneurs. Our goal is not only to provide financial support, but also to provide a ‘service’, conduct presentations, to unite all stakeholders in a single project. I believe that society will only become innovative when young individuals will open their own businesses instead of working for major corporationssaid Pekka Viljakainen to the news agency.