Four out of five finalists of IBM SmartCamp in Russia – SiproTEK (STEK) (optimization of energy consumption during oil extraction), RACS (algorithmic trade with financial derivatives), AngioScan (non-invasive methods of early diagnostics) and Sinezis (recognition of objects in video streaming) – are Skolkovo startups. On June 18 the finals of the IBM SmartCamp competition took place, with STEK project becoming the winner.
The IBM competition was directed at search of startup projects supporting the concept of a “Smart Planet” and, as General Director of IBM in Russia and CIS Kirill Kornilyev said while addressing the participants, the prize for the winner company (i.e. STEK) will be participation in a three-month programme of in-depth mentoring from IBM. Besides, STEK will present its project at the regional finals of the IBM SmartCamp competition which will take place this autumn in Istanbul. The winner also gets a special prize from RVC, the competition partner – a trip to participate in Russian Innovation Week in Silicon Valley.
STEK will go to regional finals of IBM SmartCamp in Istanbul.
Competition finals in Russia were conducted in two stages: in June 17 startups met with mentors in the frameworks of Mentors Day. One of the mentor team participants was Yekaterina Gaika, deputy director of IT cluster of the Foundation. On June 18 a plenary session was conducted with the participation of Mikhail Kozlov (United Venture Company), Kirill Kornilyev (IBM), Alexey Komissarov (Department of Science and Industrial Policy in the Government of Moscow), Igor Agamirzyan (RVC) and Mauricio Sukas de Casta, Director of ISV & Developer Relations, IBM.
Dmitri Kovalenko (AngioScan) is very happy with the IBM SmartCamp results
Dmitri Kovalenko, head of AngioScan, commented on the importance of the event for his company:
“Advertisement which we got by participating in this event will serve us for about a year. As to the advice we received during five working table sessions and from the mentors – 40 minutes at each table, meetings with 25 top venture funds, as well as the “sales” team from IBM (at the level of regional sales director): this will help our startup for the long run, this is extremely useful. A Skolkovo resident status helped us too: at the competition for mobile diagnostics we got in toucht with Samsung, and at the Startup Village – with IBM. We participated in this event and this will probably already result in a customer – we’re commercializing after launching through the Skolkovo events. We begin to like it and understand how it works.”
Round tables on venture investments
Commenting on results of the competition, Mauricio de Sukas da Casta, co-organizer on behalf of IBM, voiced his opinion on the quality of startups which participated in the competition, and also spoke about the prospects for the winners and participants of the finals:
“Teams presented at the Russian event of the IBM SmartCamp-2013 were, in my opinion, very strong. Yes, now they are in various stages of development of their projects: some have already walked a long way. I have to say that we search and try to support companies, innovations at an early stage in the whole world. At the same time these must be quite strong companies, able to demonstrate that they can scale their business. For us Russia is an important market, a country which we could in no way ignore, as the IT sector here is very strong, and there already are quite many entrepreneurs who work in this sector, creating innovative software. That’s reason why when some time ago we were thinking about which countries to hold SmartCamp, we decided that there was no way we could skip Russia. The fact that there are several Skolkovo teams in the winners list, is not surprising to me at all. By the way, not long ago I was at Startup Village and was very impressed by the scale of this event, the quality of companies.”