Two Skolkovo resident startups were included in the TekhUspekh (TechUp) rating of fast-growing Russian tech companies announced at Moscow State University last week.
Eidos (Ensim), which makes surgery simulators for training surgeons and medical students, was listed in the top five of the rating, while T8, which makes DWDM systems and equipment for telecoms networks, was named tenth. Both companies were included in the category of small companies (defined as those with earnings of up to 800 million rubles, or $13 million). Companies were judged by three criteria: earnings, earnings growth rate and innovativeness.
A pupil from the U.K.'s prestigious Eton College attempts an operation using an Ensim simulator at the Skolkovo innovation centre earlier this year. Photo: Sk.ru.
T8, a leading company in the development and application of DWDM (dense wavelength division multiplexing) systems, in which a number of optical carrier signals are combined in a single optical fibre using varying wavelengths of laser light, was also selected for the National Champions programme run by the Economic Development Ministry, which aims to help leading private hi-tech companies to expand onto the global market.
“The rating publically and authoritatively attests to the company’s success,” said Vladimir Treshchikov, head of T8.
“I sincerely hope that the Economic Development Ministry’s National Champions programme will help us not only to develop successfully in Russia, but also to start exporting our product.”
Oleg Fomichyov, Deputy Economic Development Minister, said his ministry would “hold the company’s hand” in helping it to enter foreign markets.
“We plan to provide them with a sort of ‘green corridor,’” he said.
T8, a resident of Skolkovo’s IT cluster, has already rolled out more than 67,000 kilometers of its telecoms networks across Russia and the CIS, and has set three data transfer rate world records. It has been included in the TekhUspekh rating for three years in a row, and has teamed up with fellow Skolkovo resident Russian Quantum Centre to develop a secure communications systems using quantum cryptography technology.
The Ensim robotic simulators made by Eidos, a resident of Skolkovo’s biomed cluster, are already in use around the world at medical training centres and universities, including in Istanbul. Closer to home, a group of Eton students who visited the Skolkovo innovation centre earlier this year tried their hand at operations using the simulators.
The methodology for the TekhUspekh rating was devised by PwC, which together with state development institutions led by Russian Venture Company organizes the rankings.