15 March 2018

The finalists of the GenerationS Preaccelerator in Kazan are known

A regional program for the development of early stage start-ups - the GenerationS Preaccelerator has been completed in Kazan. Based on pitch session results, two finalists were selected to present their projects to the investment community at the Federal Final of the Accelerator GenerationS scheduled for April in Moscow.

37 regional teams took part in the regional program of the GenerationS Preaccelerator in Kazan. Among the winners were start-ups SafeStorage by Ayrat Shakirov and Fixator of risks by Marat Kadyrov. The founders of the SafeStorage project are developing a decentralized cloud data storage for companies. The team of ‘Fixator of Risks’ start-up designed a service for business which protects against currency risk and allows to limit fluctuations in the exchange rate of the currency pair for the duration of transactions.

Ayrat Shakirov, founder of the SafeStorage project: ‘Since the first on-site program of Preaccelerator, we've changed the approach. Now we have a little bit slowed down the development of the product and focused on creating MVP and attracting the first customers. We realized that getting feedback at this stage is more important than immersion in programming. The RVC GenerationS program gave us an insight into the ‘blank spaces’ so that we could understand where they are located. And the experts' comments on the final pitch session confirmed our conclusions.’

Marat Kadyrov, founder of the project ‘Fixator of Risks’: ‘At the GenerationS Preaccelerator, our whole team was able to plunge into the acceleration atmosphere and join the community. I would like to note an excellent set of speakers. The composition of experts and feedback they gave inspired us and made us think about what needs to be changed.’

Artem Ovchinnikov, co-founder of ICO Zavod, expert of the GenerationS Preaccelerator: ‘The difficulties novice start-ups face are pretty standard. They need to concentrate on what kind of consumer problem is solved by the project. This will make it possible to move very quickly to the next level. I would recommend еo start-ups ask yourself more frequently the following question: Will I be able to occupy a multi-billion market in the near future? It seems to be an too much ambitious challenge for novice projects, but it allows you to focus on the main thing - business.’

The GenerationS Preaccelerator by RVC runs for the first time ever in a regional format in Yekaterinburg, Kazan, Moscow, Rostov-on-Don, Samara, St. Petersburg and Tomsk. In the course of the program, novice entrepreneurs take part in master classes and seminars on business modelling, hypothesis testing, methods for verification of product viability - LeanStartup and CustomerDevelopment, marketing, sales and MVP creation

According to the results of the regional Preaccelerator program, two start-up finalists will be selected in each of the seven cities. 14 best teams will be able to present their developments to investors at the federal GenerationS final in Moscow.

REFERENCE INFORMATION

About GenerationS

GenerationS - the largest start-up accelerator in Russia and Eastern Europe, the federal platform to develop corporate acceleration tools. It has been held by RVC since 2013. Over 20 Russian corporations interested in selecting and accelerating start-ups, become industrial partners to GenerationS every year. As a result of the multi-stage examination, the GenerationS participants receive ample opportunities for business development and investment promotion as well as access to resources and infrastructure of accelerator partners. In 2017, 3,470 applications from 13 countries were submitted to participate in GenerationS.
www.generation-startup.ru

About RVC

RVC JSC is a governmental fund of funds, the Institute of Development of the Venture Industry in the Russian Federation. The main objectives of RVC JSC: stimulate creation of Russia's own venture capital industry and execute functions of the Project Office of the National Technology Initiative (NTI). The authorized capital of RVC is more than RUB 30 bln. One hundred per cent of the RVC capital is owned by the Russian Federation represented by the Federal Agency for Management of State Property of the Russian Federation (Rosimushchestvo). The total number of funds formed by RVC JSC has reached 26; their total size is 35.5 billion roubles. The share of RVC JSC is 22.6 billion roubles. The number of innovative companies approved for investment by RVC funds has reached 218. The total amount of monetary funds approved for investment is 17.9 billion roubles.
www.rvc.ru