More than 800 applications for participation in the GenerationS-2015 accelerator has been received over six weeks

Startups from 78 cities of nine countries have applied to participate in GenerationS 2015. The leader in the number of applications was Moscow (11.8%), the second goes Tomsk (7.8%), the third - Irkutsk (7.3%), the fourth - Samara (4.7%), and the fifth - Yakutsk (3.2%).

"GenerationS 2015 was expected to receive about 1,000 applications, but the current results give hope that the final figure will exceed our expectations," said Gulnara Bikkulova, Director of Innovative Markets and Member of the Management Board, RVC. – This year we have reformatted GenerationS into a platform for creating corporate accelerators, and now we see that the market has responded with great interest. In addition, thanks to the active work with the regions and creation of the largest regional network of educational partners, we now get requests from all over Russia. Regional startups still have limited opportunities to bring their products to the federal and international level. In our turn, we are offering the expert reviews by the leading market participants, giving access to domestic and international corporations, and helping to establish partnerships necessary for the business development. Such support, of course, is crucial for a young company."

GenerationS is working on development of the innovation ecosystem in the regions, supporting and involving in the accelerator the regional network of educational partners including more than 30 startup schools, business incubators, technology parks, universities, technology platforms, and other participants in the ecosystem, working directly with startups. Through this work, in 2015 the number of applications from young companies in the regions increased significantly. Thus, only 12% of applications for participation in the GenerationS acceleration programs has been filed by Moscow startups. Last year, the figure was one third of the total number of applications.

All the participants who have submitted applications to participate in GenerationS and satisfied the formal criteria will qualify for the first stage of the project – Pre-Accelerator, which will be held in July-August and will consist of two blocks. Pre-Accelerator is a training program for young technology companies that will allow them to acquire basic business skills and prepare for the selection for the full-time industry acceleration programs of GenerationS. Pre-Accelerator will be attended by more than a thousand start-ups guided by several hundred Russian and foreign experts and mentors.

The first block of Pre-Accelerator will be held in an online mode in July. It will include eight classes and 16 video lectures, as well as tests and work on the project under the remote guidance by experts and mentors. Following the online program, experts and mentors will select 200 best projects for participation in the full-time educational block of the Pre-Accelerator in Moscow at the end of August, where the experts will select 10 to 20 projects for further work within the framework of the sectoral tracks of GenerationS. Acceleration in the tracks is implemented in close cooperation with corporations. Following the final events, demo days, it will be decided on continuation of cooperation between the corporations and projects.

The accelerator will be held from September to November in various cities of Russia in the field of Power&Energy, Oil&Gas, BiotechMed, Telecom Idea, SmartCity, Aerospace, and Robotics. For the best teams that will get to the final investment session and reach the stage of evaluation by the investment committee, a corporate partner of the track can become a strategic investor or customer and the development may be included in the product line of the corporation. All the participants of corporate tracks will be given the opportunity to receive a grant of RUB 1 mn rubles from the Foundation for Assistance to Development of Small Research and Technology Enterprises. Three winners of GenerationS will share the prize fund of RVC and partners. The minimum size of the prize fund is RUB 5 mn.