Results of the Kazan Venture Fair: 10 startups were selected for the international accelerator

Following the results of XVI Russian Venture Fair and XI Kazan Venture Fair 10 participating companies will take part in the international accelerator. A jury of 50 experts - investors, corporate representatives and entrepreneurs determined the winners among the 55 projects presented at the Fair. The finalists received investments  and, what is most important, the acceleration in Russia, Ireland and Silicon Valley with access to Russian, European and world markets, mentoring from successful entrepreneurs, experts in the field of law, intellectual property, marketing, etc.

The accelerator accepted projects from Moscow, Kazan, Volgograd, Chelyabinsk, Naberezhnye Chelny and St. Petersburg. Each project has received funding from the accelerator, in whole, the organizers invested in selected projects 50 000 000 roubles and plan to invest another 100 000 000 rubles until the end of the program.

The list of participants in the accelerator:

• LLC "Innovation Center of Polymer materials and technologies", Volgograd – thermally conductive polymer composites
• LLC "Interbio technology", Riga/Kazan – industrial technology of production bioprotein from methane
• Nerpa Trim Systems (LLC "Trim systems"), Moscow – intercepters for small size vessels
• NF Ware (LLC "NFWare"), Moscow –networks virtualization
• Agelon (LLC "AGELON M"), Chelyabinsk – Service of online research
• Try Fit Ltd., Moscow – Scanners for feet, virtual fitting room
• Zig Zag (LLC "Zig Zag"), Naberezhnye Chelny –optimization of transport logistics service
• Swelp (LLC "Swelp"), Moscow – Service  allowing to quickly find a specialist for office tasks outsourcing
• Turborender (LLC "Render-Farm"), Naberezhnye Chelny – Internet-service of remote render
• DigiFlak (LLC "FLAK Research"), St. Petersburg – Mini computers protecting companies’ databases

The program is designed for more than six months. The finalists of the accelerator completed the training program in Innopolis and Kazan in May, in July they will be working in Dublin and in September they will proceed in San Francisco. At the end of the year the participants will return to Russia to complete the program with a final pitch session and to strike a balance for further development.

The initiative was commented by the President of Tatarstan, Rustam Minnikhanov, at the opening of the Venture Fair: "10 years ago, there was an open field, today we hold Venture Fair, and tomorrow there will be a new format. The level of this site has already made possible to create an international hub here".

The accelerator has received 378 applications from startups of 37 cities of Russia and from 15 countries. In the course of pitch session 55 projects were selected by three involved expert juries: of industrial technology, of IT and medicine. Among the judges were such experts as: Igor Agamirzian (RVC), Marvin Liao (500 Startups), Dmitry Kalaev (FIDI) and others.

The organizers and permanent partners of the accelerators in Russia appeared to be: Investment and Venture Fund of the Republic of Tatarstan,  Pulsar Venture Capital, NDRC (the famous accelerator in Ireland), Russian Venture Company, Fund for the Promotion of the Development of Small Businesses in the Sphere of Science and Technology, Enterprise Ireland (Irish State Agency and the third largest seed Fund in the world) as well as a number of leading venture funds of Russia, Europe, USA and Asia.