The best startups shared the prize of $ 2 million at GenerationS finale
The finale of the biggest startup accelerator in Eastern Europe GenerationS by RVC took place on April, 25th at the Stadium Live concert hall in Moscow, Russia. Three winners shared the prize fund of $260k, and nineteen teams received over $1.7m in prizes from accelerator partners.
The finale of GenerationS unfolded as a large-scale technological show and gathered several hundred entrepreneurs, investors, corporate representatives and members of the innovative ecosystem. The top 40 accelerator startups presented their developments in the spheres of financial technologies, energy, 3D printing, metallurgy, agriculture, biomedicine, advertising, design and retail, and smart cities. The key point of the finale and the whole season of GenerationS-2016 was the stage pitches of eight finalists — one finalist per each industry track of the accelerator — in front of an expert jury that determined the winners of the fourth GenerationS season.
The first prize went to the Moscow team «BOFT» headed by Tos Movsisyan who presented the technology of instant photography printing. The entrepreneur has developed a vending machine for printing images from social networks. The machines can already be found in 47 cities of Russia and in 17 countries of the world. The team received $88.7k in proportion to the number of votes cast by the members of the Board of Trustees of GenerationS.
The second prize went to the Krasnodar team «Manufacture of green technologies», led by Angela Asaturova who developed organic biopreparations for plant protection. The product, based on new strains of bacteria, protects cereals, fruit, vegetables and soybeans from diseases and pests. The use of biopreparations instead of pesticides can lower expenses and minimize the negative impact on the environment. Their prize amounted to $87.9k.
The third prize went to Perm businessmen Mikhail Tyulkin and Dmitry Sutormin, founders of «RCML». They have developed a universal RCML-language for communications between industrial robots. The company aims to ease and fasten the install and operation of the software at industrial plants and to pair robots of various manufacturers with each other — it reduces the cost of introducing new software. The team was awarded $85.5k.
«The GenerationS alumni are already making their businesses more efficient and our lives better. We congratulate the winners, finalists and all participants of the startup accelerator with the end of the important stage. It will help technological entrepreneurs of the future to become a part of the economy of new opportunities. Withing four years GenerationS has done a lot — we have completed 20 accelerated programs, worked with more than 10.000 applications, more than a billion rubles of investments were raised by the participants», — commented the RVC CEO, Alexander Povalko.
At the finale the winners of numerous calls and special nominations from GenerationS-2016 partners were announced as well.
FASIE, a GenerationS partner since 2014, has launched a special StartGenS call. As a result the Fund awarded 2 million rubles to 26 finalists of GenerationS accelerator.
«The members of the accelerator obtained excellent experience, plenty of connections and useful knowledge. You are the best, you should fully enjoy attention and reverence. FASIE is especially pleased to be here. We regularly support GenerationS finalists with our programs. Since 2014 the accelerator companies have been financed by the Fund in the amount of over $1.7m», commented Ivan Bortnik, Adviser to the General Director, Member of the Supervisory Board of FASIE, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of GenerationS.
Raiffeisenbank named the finalists of the nomination Raiffeisen Award. The first prize worth of $17.5k (1 million rubles) went to the team Oz Photo Expert for the analysis of digital photos. Among the three winners were also named the service developers Eco Banking System and Thewaay. All prize winners of the nomination obtained the right to launch pilot projects with Raiffeisenbank.
VTB24 will launch a joint pilot project with the Finhab team, they won the «Best FinTech-startup for B2B» nomination. The startup team will have access to the expertise of the profile specialists of the Department of servicing small business customers at VTB24, as well as to the resources necessary for the pilot launch.
Under its proprietary nomination «Tomorrow begins today.Innovative technologies and solutions for business» SAP company selected the following teams: Imredi — the service of collecting and analyzing data at the sales points, Rokot — equipment failure forecasting service, Nilar — collision prevention technology. SAP, one of the major developers of enterprise applications, will grant entrepreneurs the opportunity to undergo the training course «Internet of things in action» at the SAP Training Center.
The GenerationS partner, Gars Telecom awarded the developers of Hidden Net in the nomination «New Telecom for Smart Business». The technological entrepreneurs will not only attract investments from the accelerator’s telecom partner but will also obtain infrastructure necessary to develop the turn-key solutions — a Moscow office, computing facilities, a digital communication network in the city and across the country, a pool of potential customers.
Eight teams were selected in the special nomination «Investments from Alexander Rumyantsev»: WaterMelon, GrammyGo!, Darenta, Trusbox, OfficeSharing, 2work, Trainhub and the Patent Community. Apart from investments for the development from the business angel, the winners will receive mentorship, assistance in strengthening the team, accounting, and legal support.
Microsoft provided a $120k Azure grant, as well as mentoring and technology support to entrepreneurs of RCML.
In the nomination «Perspective technologies. Developing New Products from Precious Metals» Krastsvetmet corporation invited developers of ATSS 3D-printing production automation technology to participate in the startup development program, held in the company R&D Park.
The Minsk-based startup Dronex won the special nomination Smart Start Award of the company Kama Flow. Now the developers will participate in the acceleration and tracking program of this GenerationS partner.
The investor club VentureClub will invest $100k in the Cindicator start-up and $50k in the Arena Leader start-up that were recognized as the most investment-attractive GenerationS company under this nomination.
The nomination TechMoscow Awards from the Moscow innovation agency was awarded to the Akkolab company. The team received an annual access to the Deworkacy business area at Red October premises, as well as a laptop.
The audience choice award was received by the founder of Scanderm Pro. The winner of the nomination received a certificate for professional support from PwC, as well as coverage in a series of publications in the Inc. Russia Journal.
Special prizes for all finalists were provided by Faberlic, the beauty partner of the GenerationS finale.
The GenerationS finale marked the opening of the IV Russian Tech Tour. The graduates of the accelerator were introduced to a group of 50 international investors, including BASF Venture Capital (Germany), Innovestor Ventures (Finland), Middle East Venture Partners (UAE), Silicon Valley Venture Partners (USA), Almaz Capital Partners (USA), representatives of Russian funds Maxfield Capital, Bright Capital, Phystech Ventures and others.
In 2016, 4237 applications from 30 countries were submitted for participation in GenerationS. About 20 corporations, such as QIWI, Moscow Stock Exchange, VISA, Raiffeisenbank, NPO Saturn, Krasstvetmet, Nothern BioPharmCluster, EuroSibEnergo, ALROSA, EFKO, Russian Technical Society, Publicis Communications Russia and others, were directly involved in the selection and acceleration. The partner corporations developed specialized programs in eight sectoral areas: AgroBioTech&Food, Сreative Industries, Finance&Banking Technologies, LifeScience, Mining&Metals, Power&Еnergy, SmartCity, TechNet. The accelerators took on 120 startup teams. During the acceleration, quite a few of them signed cooperation agreements with GenerationS partner companies, launched pilots and raised investments.
«The creation of breakthrough technologies and products is what we have been doing ourselves for many years in Russia and around the world. Therefore, we participate in the search and support of young teams that are trying to make a difference in technology. Russia is able to raise first-class technology companies of global level — we are all aware of these examples: ABBYY, Kaspersky, Acronis etc. Hopefully, today we have witnessed the first success of those who will soon join the list, — said a member of the Board of Trustees of GenerationS, co-founder and the head of Acronis development, Stanislav Protasov.
