GenerationS Heroes: Meet Four Contest Winners
On October 15, 2014, the organizers of the GenerationS nationwide acceleration contest announced four winning projects declared Russia's best startups in 2014 by a panel of expert judges. The winners split the contest's main cash prize – RUB 5 million – four ways. All of this happened at the Open Innovation, an international forum in Moscow. Without further ado, we are sharing the names of the winning projects, here and now:
Promobot, Industrial Track, winner of RUB 1,250,000 in prize money
Promobot is a multifunctional smart robot for customer service work at brick-and-mortar retailers.
The main objectives of the Promobot are attracting new customers, product presentation and product/sales consulting, as well as collecting and analyzing customer data. A Promobot can operate for up to 8 hours on one battery charge, moving around the sales floor or its assigned area at a speed of up to 5 kph, the robot has a built-in speech emulator with 100,000 voice samples and an ability to recognize and "commit to memory" up to 1,000 faces.
The potential market for the Promobot includes retailers, business center owners, cinemas, entertainment and retail centers. The global advertising robot market is estimated at US$ 1.7 billion. A finished Promobot costs US$ 10,000. By year-end 2014, the company is planning to organize a global dealership network of 50 dealerships around the world, and expects to be selling at least 1,000 Promobots a year by md-2016.
Kera-Tech, BioTechMed Track, winner of RUB 1,250,000 in prize money
Kera-Tech is a technology to derive a protein-rich feed supplement from poultry processing waste.
An average poultry farm/processing plant produces 3 metric tons of waste a day after slaughtering the chickens. By converting the waste to Kera-Tech feed supplement, a poultry farm can earn an additional RUB 16 million in net profit. The Kera-Tech technology can reduce the cost of feed combo by 18%, and the supplement is up to 98% metabolized by farmed chickens.
Kera-Tech can potentially bring approximately RUB 82 billion in annual sales.
NanoServe, CleanTech Track, winner of RUB 1,250,000 in prize money
NanoServe is a project to clean heating systems, heat exchangers and industrial boilers of salt residue and scale deposits using biotechnologies based on live bacterial cultures and milk whey.
The company is generating RUB 5 million in monthly sales. The NanoServe team has cleaned approximately 500 facilities across Russia, creating their own BONAKA trade mark in 2014 to promote their line of cleaning compounds and equipment, as well as building a network of dealerships.
VeeRoute, IT Track, winner of RUB 1,250,000 in prize money
VeeRoute is a service to perform logistics optimization for online stores, retailers, wholesalers, distributors, courier services and service providers.
Algorithms developed by the project team can help customers to build optimal itineraries in real time: it takes no more than 10 minutes to plan an itinerary for any of 10,000 addresses, the solution can save up to RUB 2 million a month for customers running a fleet of 100 commercial vehicles, reducing fuel consumption by 20%, increasing by 40% the share of orders processed on the same day.
The company had seven customers as of the beginning of October 2014, who generate an overall monthly revenue of RUB 300,000 for the startup. The target market size is US$ 50 million per annum. The startup is seeking investments to set up a sales division.
