Developers of biologicals for plant protection win the GenerationS agricultural track.
Technologies of plant protection, seed treatment and DNA analysis have bested all the others in the agro-track of RVC's GenerationS. Developers from Krasnodar, Zernograd and Voronezh shared the prize fund of 1 million rubles and received grants from the Foundation for the Promotion of Innovation.
The winner was the Krasnodar team "Green Technology Manufactory" led by Angela Asaturova, who creates safe organic biologics for plant protection. The substances stemmed from new strains of bacteria protect cereals, fruits, vegetables and soybeans from diseases and pests. Furthermore, the use of biologics instead of pesticides does not have a negative impact on the environment and can be cost-reducing.
The developers have already received 500 thousand rubles to refine their technologies as well as a 2 million RUB grant from the Foundation for the Promotion of Innovation under the Start program.
"As part of the accelerator, we were able to identify the main steps to begin with. The financial prize and grant will help us to scale the production technologies of our biologics,"— said Angela Asaturova.
The second place was taken by Zernograd-based team "Mixer-incrustator EcoMix" . The development is able to reduce damage to seeds while they are treated with protective repellents against plant-killing bacteria and viruses.
The founders received a prize of 350 thousand RUB and a grant from the Foundation for the Promotion of Innovation.
The third place and 150 thousand RUB came to the entrepreneurs from the Voronezh team "DNA test systems for food industry" in order to fuel the company's growth. The startup technology determines microbiological contamination and uses DNA analysis to check rapidly food products for the presence of pathogenic micro-organisms.
The grant of the Foundation for the Promotion of Innovations also came to the "Agro one" startup for the idea of ergonomic waste processing and to the founders of the project on producing heat insulation material based on rice husks .
"Innovation in the field of agro- and biotechnology is a market with a great investment potential. The GenerationS framework helps entrepreneurs to proceed to introducing technology into real production. Our finalists will certainly be looked up to by the teams of other start-ups," — said Gulnara Bikkulova, deputy general director of RVC and the ideologist of GenerationS.
''We have kept a close watch on the teams during the accelerator's program: they are all worthy and have all managed to develop their projects to considerable heights. It was quite difficult for us, expert representatives of R & D direction of GC EFCO, to choose the best. It has been interesting to work and it has been nice to see the developers growing and their competencies are improving, " — said Tatyana Sanina, director of the Innovation Center Biryuch-NT of GK EFKO.
"The GenerationS accelerator is an excellent opportunity to bring your project to near-perfection, until when the investor becomes interested, which is the most important stage in the life of the startup. The winner is a worthy project, which will surely find its niche in the market and will be able to reach serious production levels", — summarized Pavel Dvornichenko, head of the project support department of the Innovation Promotion Fund.
The total of 500+ applications were submitted for the agro-direction of the GenerationS accelerator. Of these, the experts selected the top 10 teams, which within two weeks passed an intensive business development program at the premises of the industrial partner GC EFKO and the Kuban State Technological University. The final of the GenerationS accelerator will be held in April 2017 in Moscow. The winners will share the prize fund of 15 million rubles as well as prizes from partners worth over 100 million rubles.
