The best GenerationS robotics projects have been announced

At Robonights in Skolkovo’s HyperCube around 20 participants of Robotics GenerationS seed accelerator presented their projects to the expert jury. The jury consisted of the experts from Microsoft, Intel, Sberbank Technologies, Fanuc, Lego Education, NITs Robotics, as well as representatives of the following investment companies Phystech Ventures, Pulsar Venture Capital, Starta Capital, I2BF, KamaFlow, Quantum Wave Fund, T-nano, co-organizers of Robotics track and Robonights 2015 of Skolkovo Fund and Skolkovo Robotics Center, as well as other industry experts.

BiPod from Krasnodar was awarded first prize. BiPod lkh is a unique chassis system which enables to drive across off-road conditions and terrains, demolished buildings, and other extreme conditions. This is a high tech project which may be applied in a wide array of industries: its customers may be Emercom services, as well as various industrial companies operating in tough climatic conditions.

Other top-five companies included the cloud service of face recognition (for retail), VisionLabs online stores and restaurants; the pilotless system for ground transportation Avrora; development of a semi-automatic GPS/GLONASS receiver for pilotless aircraft which enables to read coordinates using visual odometry, and the Bitronix construction set for young and aspiring neuro-technicians.

All the members of Robotics GenerationS seed accelerator have been able to overcome a number of trials and selections, said Gulnara Bikkulova, Director of Innovative Markets Department, Member of the Management Board of RVC: “We can assuredly say that GenerationS has become a Launchpad for growth for the teams. Some projects have fine-tuned and even altered their business models during the acceleration stage, while many others have been able to attract attention of GenerationS partners, i.e. corporations, and we are already looking forward to a number of deals. Of course, we will continue to track their progress and assist them with our resources.”

The main prize for the three winners of Robotics GenerationS track was their trip to Japan to the International Robot Exhibition with stand and educational program. VisionLabs, Avrora, and SmikTech shared a cash prize in the amount of RUB 1 million. Two more projects will receive special prize by RVC – a trip to Japan - NVR: Neuro Helmet and KleiberHand Bionic hand prosthetic. The five best projects received an opportunity to publish their works and technology in the international scientific magazine Cloud of Science. Microsoft granted USD 120,000 to SapfiR project in the form of cloud resources of the company. IBM extended two cloud grants for the total of USD 120,000, as well as invitations to VisionLabs and SapfiR to partake in the business partner acceleration program. The LEGO Education track partner presented Bitronics Lab project with their Mindstorms EV3. GAZ Group presented a tour of its production and consultations by its designers to the PTR: Industrial Transporter Robots project. The colleagues from RANEPA awarded the prize in Perspective nomination to BiPod and TSURU Robotics projects. The organizer of GenerationS RVC and the Robotics track partners - Promobot – paid the cost of visiting the three projects – Avrora, BiPod and PTR — to the large-scale battle of robots in Perm on November 12th. Each project-semi-finalist received prizes from the corporate partner – Sberbank Technology and the operator of Moscow Technological Institute track.

232 applications were filed within Robotics GenerationS from robotics startups across Russia. Based on the results of a multitier expert assessment, 20 startups were selected to become members of the corporate accelerator. They went through a two-week advanced business development program which had been developed by RVC together with the Moscow Technological Institute.

On November 24th within the framework of the Moscow Corporate Venture Summit, the results of GenerationS will be announced: from among the winners of seven industry categories of the accelerator, three semi-finalists will be selected. They will share the RUB 10 million prize sponsored by RVC and partner companies.

In 2015, RVC reformatted GenerationS into its line of seven corporate accelerators which are conducted in cooperation with the following corporations: RusHydro Group, KES Holding, OJSC MOESK, Energy Without Borders Foundation, PJSC MTS, CJSC Sberbank Technologies, NPO Saturn, S.P. Korolev RKK Energy, MORTON Group, ROO Russian Technical Society, OJSC Tatneftekhiminvest Holding, Johnson&Johnson, Pharmkontract Group, and Production Association Sibbiopharm. The corporations take part in the selection, expert evaluation of projects, and acceleration of startups – participants of GenerationS based on their needs in innovative developments and technologies. Provided expert support by RVC and the market players, the corporations are able to implement pilot projects involving cooperation with technology startups aimed at developing innovative growth programs, building agile innovative policies, developing their business, developing new products, and securing new markets.

This year the partners of GenerationS project included hundreds of public entities and private commercial enterprises, such as the Foundation for promotion of SMEs in sciences and technology, the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation, the Agency for Strategic Initiatives, the Ministry of Telecoms and Mass Communications of the Russian Federation, the Association of Innovative Regions of the Russian Federation, Rosmolodezh, Innovation Center for the Russian Olympic Committee, VTB24, MasterCard, Alfa-Bank, Kamaflow, SAP, Cisco, IBM, Samsung, Microsoft, EFKO Group, Team Finland, Invest in Finland, and many others.