Sergey Maximchuk, Alfa-Bank: "At GenerationS we will choose the best of the best"

Why does Alfa-Bank need start-ups?

Alfa-Bank has a technology platform which it uses in its work and is ready to share it with third-party companies. This mainly concerns the processing of payments, such as mobile acquiring, Internet acquiring, P2P transfers. This is the way for us to find prospective partners, which can over time become major players who will use our technology. On the other hand, our work with start-ups helps us to keep abreast with new technologies and technological trends. And, in addition to these tasks, it is important for us to participate in the startup movement, helping to accelerate the introduction of new technologies in the real world settings, contribute to their faster deployment and popularity among clients, including our clients.

We have not established our own venture capital foundation yet, but we are already evaluating this market. RVC has recently provided several of our employees with an opportunity to take part in a training on the issue of corporate venture funds. We are now building up our expertize in this area.

But even now Alfa-Bank already has its own structure for the work with startups — Alfa-Start, which runs AlfaCamp, which means the Bank plays a practical role in the acceleration of young technology projects, while also working with many members of the Russian venture capital ecosystem, including GenerationS. What is the main difference between the Bank’s independent work with start-ups through the structures of the bank and the work performed through partners?

We work in the same market. Startups are generally the same, their number is limited. Therefore, our collaboration with partners expands our "funnel". And in doing so, we found a mutually beneficial model of cooperation, in which we offer our expertise and our technology for the implementation of projects run by other players in the market, which will enable them to work more effectively. On the other hand, we engage partners, who also have specific competences, to participate in the projects that we deal with. Thus, there is an exchange of projects which results in synergy of competencies of the Bank, banking technologies and the competencies of our partners. Working in this tandem is much more efficient: After all, we share our perspectives with our colleagues: we all want that the projects develop. Therefore, we do not compete with anyone but assist each other.

What do you think of the dynamics of technological entrepreneurship development in Russia? What are the changes that have been taking place in the startup community in the recent years?

The main change we notice is that the start-up movement has matured. There are people whose start-up is not their first one. They have the experience of their first startups, they have made some mistakes, so they have a different approach, a more serious and thoughtful one, when working on their second or third project. They take into account the needs of the actual customers, they understand that all the efforts aimed at working with venture capital institutions, accelerators and funds are not in vain. And now the results of these efforts are becoming more visible. Startupers themselves have become smarter, so to say, and more experienced. And this has a direct influence on the quality of the projects. In recent years, there are more and more quality projects and quality ideas that later turn into really useful services and products.

Our basic criteria for the selection of projects are the following: the presence of a legal entity and legal activity, because otherwise we cannot comply with the law; participation in the foundation or successful acceleration in any of the programs, which allows us to toss cut projects that are obviously going to fail. These criteria are quite simple and adequate, and we do not see it as a problem that someone cannot get through to us because of these barriers. But sometimes, despite the changes in the community which I mentioned above, we make exceptions to the rules: it sometimes happens that for some reason a project did not participate in the work of the foundation, did not go through the acceleration program, but we can see it at a glance that the idea is really interesting, and so we invite the guys to come and talk to us face-to-face.

Why did Alfa-Bank decide to co-operate with GenerationS?

RVC is one of the greatest drivers in the start-up market. And we became partners, because, as I already mentioned, Alfa-Bank is interested in attracting promising projects for joint development. We believe that GenerationS is one of the largest and most ambitious accelerators in Russia, and today it already extends beyond the borders of our country.

Alfa-Bank has established its own nomination, Fintech Award, within the framework of GenerationS. Can you tell us more about it: what criteria will be used to select the winners?

Our focus remains the same: it is fintech and e-commerce, the areas where our expertise and technology are in demand. However, by the agreement with the organizers of GenerationS we are going to examine all the tracks and select winners from all the participants. Actually, this work is already being carried out. The first criterion is that it has to be an area that is interesting for us. The second criterion is confirmed demand: we have to see that the project already has its first users, and that the product is in demand. Well, there are no other special selection criteria. The organizers of GenerationS have already done a lot of work, and now only the best projects remain. We will choose the best of the best, which are interesting for us.

Your prize for the participants of GenerationS is a certificate for joint development of their project. In your opinion, what is the most important benefit that the winner will receive as part of this joint development? And what should the future winner get ready for in order to cooperate efficiently with Alfa-Bank?

We want to find a project that will help us make a joint product and scale it for the clients of Alfa-Bank. It may well be some non-banking service. On our part, we are ready to arrange a joint pilot project, for which we will determine the success metrics. If the metrics are achieved, we are ready to scale it to the entire customer base of Alfa-Bank.

Starting from this year, GenerationS is conducted in collaboration with major Russian and international corporations. Is it possible and feasible to project the expectations of financial corporations in respect of technology oriented enterprises to manufacturing corporations, for example? What is the factor that industrial companies may lack but financial and IT corporations have?

The only thing they lack is probably the desire to do it. They do have everything else. State corporations and other very large corporations will definitely find it difficult because of their structure and merely because of their size. They have to address a lot of issues, including purely technical questions, but also legal and organizational aspects. But the main thing is the desire to do it. I think everyone is already aware that our world is rapidly changing, and that technological revolution is not something to take place in the future but a process that is already underway, so I think everybody needs to explore this area and take some steps right now. Create special corporate units, venture capital institutions, attract external companies which can come and see, from their independent point of view, the things that are not visible from inside the corporations, and do for the corporations something that the latter are unable to do due to some circumstances or legal obstacles. An external company can manage to do it faster and easier. To sum up, every business needs to work with start-ups. The main thing is to transform that need into a conscious desire.

The experts of Alfa-Bank and Alfa-Start Project have been working a lot with the participants of GenerationS-2015 at different stages. What are your impressions from meeting the participating projects and the organizers?

First of all I want to say that GenerationS is RVC’s great project. It has a very wide geographical coverage, and it actually represents many regions of Russia and neighboring countries. Compared to last year, the quality of the projects has improved considerably. And there is also that busy atmosphere, with all of us, organizers and experts, and projects doing the same thing, everyone is trying to help each other, everyone is very open, it is very easy to communicate with each other, and it is so easy to meet, to talk, to find common ground and come to agreements in respect of joint work. So GenerationS is doing a great job, and we are very pleased to contribute to that work.