Application Process Now Complete
The final tally of applications submitted for the VI Web Ready Open Contest for online and mobile technology projects is in. The contest is running as part of the IT Track of the GenerationS nationwide accelerator contest organized by the Russian Venture Company (RVC) and the Moscow Center for Innovative Development (CIR) and sponsored by the Moscow City Hall.
As many as 725 projects from 95 cities in 11 different countries were selected from 794 submitted applications on formal grounds. This is the highest number of applications ever in the Web Ready contest history.
All applications have been given to the Board of Experts for evaluation, which is going to name, on July 4, 2014, 80 projects which will become participants in the GenerationS accelerator contest.
The IT Track has been most popular for seed-stage projects (508 projects), which accounted for 2.5 times the number of applications for startup projects which are already in the monetization stage (199 projects). Applications for 18 projects are in the Growth stage, representing success stories.
Project Geography
The greatest number of project teams (264) hail from Moscow and the Moscow Region, followed by St. Petersburg (130). Russia’s southern regions are in the third place for the first time since the accelerator contest was launched. More than 50 projects were submitted by teams based in the Astrakhan Region, Crimea, and the Krasnodar Region. Siberian cities (Tomsk, Novosibirsk, and Krasnoyarsk) provided 43 applications, while 24 projects were conceived in Tatarstan. As many as 36 applicant teams are based in 10 countries outside Russia, including Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, the US, Finland, and others.
Specific Project Areas
The largest number of projects this year are in the category of services that can make users’ everyday lives easier (from booking tables at cafés to apartment rentals to health diagnostics and monitoring health condition), and also SaaS (software as a service) projects.
Projects in these categories account for 23% and 22% of all applications, respectively. This compares with 16% and 18%, respectively, of 2013 total applications.
Mobile solutions and applications are third with 15% of the total, followed by social media projects (10%), financial services and ecommerce solutions (10%) and data storage and processing (9%).
Investment
Approximately 70% of all participants are either financing their projects themselves or borrowing funds from friends and family (up to US$ 50,000). At the same time, more than 200 projects have already raised finance, of which 25% are relying on investment by business angels, 19% have received Russian and international grants, 26% have been financed by business accelerators, development institutions and investment funds at least partially funded by the government, with venture capital funds and corporate investors each accounting for 15% of these 200+ projects.
Business Incubators
188 out of 725 projects are residents or alumni of business incubators and accelerators. A majority of these have been affiliated with FDII, Ingria Business Incubator (St. Petresburg), IT Park (with sites in Kazan and Naberezhnye Chelny), Skolkovo Foundation (Moscow), and LIFT Business Incubator (Astrakhan). All in all, projects affiliated with nearly 50 nationwide, regional, private and undergraduate (university) incubators, Russian as well as international. As many as 68% of all projects were launched in 2013–2014.
The list of participants in the GenerationS Web Ready acceleration program will be published on July 4, 2014. The acceleration program will be launched on July 12 on a site provided by FDII, a partner organization of the GenerationS IT Track, culminating in the Web Ready Investment Forum at Skolkovo on October 8, 2014. The winners will be eligible for a coaching session on October 10 through 13 at Krasny Oktyabr API Moscow led by serial entrepreneurs, and then will enter the general finals for all GenerationS Tracks, presenting their projects at the Open Innovation Forum on October 15. Web Ready offers RUB 1.5 million (about US$ 45,000 in prize money. GenerationS will add another RUB 5 million (about US$ 150,000) in prize money on top of that.
The GenerationS accelerator contest is organized by the Russian Venture Company and the Moscow Center for Innovative Development and sponsored by the Moscow City Hall (Moscow Government). This is the sixth time Web Ready has been held with support from the Skolkovo Foundation, ЕМС, Ingria Business Incubator and the Foundation for Development of Internet Initiatives (FDII).
