MTS announces the launch of Telecom Idea corporate seed accelerator
PJSC Mobile TeleSystems (NYSE: MBT), the leading telecommunications provider in Russia and CIS countries, announces the start of its Corporate Accelerator within the framework of the international young innovative projects competition – Telecom Idea – in cooperation with RVC.
On October 1st, at the API Moscow site the GenerationS-based MTS corporate accelerator was launched. This is a one week program, the participants of which are the winners of Telecom Idea 2015 international youth innovative competition organized by MTS, as well as the projects selected during a track of Telecom Idea by the federal accelerator GenerationS organized by RVC.
Rashid Ismailov, Deputy Minister of Telecoms and Mass Communications of the Russian Federation, opened the accelerator program. In his address, the Deputy Minister talked about the key tasks of the Ministry, and the trends in the telecom industry, as well as about startup support.
Andrey Smelkov, Member of the Management Board – Vice President, Director of Business Unit MTS Foreign Companies advised that under the auspices of the import substitution program the support of Russian innovators and young entrepreneurs becomes extremely important. MTS for the past five years has been working with talented youth supporting their innovations which are an important driver of the national economic growth. “We are constantly amazed by the audacity and scope of ideas. We praise your will and urge you to move forward. Never stop. Your efforts will definitely bear fruit.” – Andrey said.
Gulnara Bikkulova, Director of Innovative Markets Department, Member of the Management Board of RVC: “It is great that such a great number of corporations are joining their efforts helping develop technological projects. However, the participants should prove they are worth investing in, and I hope that by the end of the year we will see successful cases of cooperation between companies and startups. It is a long process and one should not expect any immediate results and believe that everything will be nice and easy. One has to work very hard in order to make this cooperation and to make their investments worthwhile. GenerationS is now an established brand therefore we, first and foremost, expect that the participants will work diligently and we will continue hearing from our partners that projects coming out of the accelerator are worth paying attention to on the market.”
Projects gain unique opportunities within the framework of this program. “In the course of seven days the best MTS experts, partners, and representatives of subsidiaries of JSFC Sistema will be assisting young and aspiring entrepreneurs learn their ropes in the complex technological world, they will be delving into the markets and trends, they will be drafting roadmaps, they will learn to model business processes, and plan their cash flows. Young and talented marketers are now students of our school; they are ready to help the projects develop their marketing plans customized to their relevant investment offer,” said Tatyana Komissarova, Dean of Higher School of Marketing and Business Development at R&D University Higher School of Economics.
Yuri Safronov, Information Technology Director for CJSC GK Mersi: “It is greatly pleasing to see young people here because young professionals are the key wealth and resource for any company, and Medsi fully shares this approach – for us the priorities for business growth are highly skilled employees and innovations in high tech medical equipment. I have personally taken part in various stages of Telecom Idea contest, and we have started working with the authors of several projects.”
Out of 18 projects – members of MTS corporate seed accelerator – only 5 will be selected within the framework of Demo Day which will be held on October 17th in Moscow.
5 winning projects will be granted a unique opportunity to compete at the super finals GenerationS federal accelerator for the prize fund valued at RUB 10 million.
The partners of MTS corporate seed accelerator include the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications of the Russian Federation, the Department of High Tech Development of the City of Moscow, Higher School of Marketing and Business Development, JSFC Sistema, CJSC Medsi, Stream, Nokia, Mercator, CityCelebrity, the Kondratyev Center for Managerial Innovations, Business Incubator at R&D University Higher School of Economics, Higher School of Marketing and Business Development, Google Russia, and Eaton.
