2-3.06 Innovestor general partner of Startup Village in Skolkovo
On 2 and 3 of June 2016 Skolkovo innovation centre hosted the biggest annual startup conference in Russia – Startup Village. This year the conference was attended by more than 14 000 participants. As the general partner of the event, Innovestor welcomed over 150 guests both from Finland and Russia.
Startup Village is the largest startup conference in Russia and CIS for technology, entrepreneurship and venture investing. In its fourth year the event attracted more than 2,000 startups and 700 investors from 20 countries. The event is an ideal platform for startups to show their innovative solutions and to communicate with investors, industry representatives and governmental officials. The program of the event featured various presentations, panel discussions, product launches and, of course, startup competition for 244 teams in five different categories.
This year the highlights of Startup Village were related to international collaboration and presence of such companies as Boeing, Samsung, Intel, SAP, Google, Microsoft and Panasonic. The main organiser of Startup Village and Innovestor’s advisor – Pekka Viljakainen – mentioned in interviews that the event is truly international despite current political tensions. Viljakainen himself moderated one of the top panel discussions at the event: “Tomorrow Came Today: 4th Industrial Revolution” with Russian-Armenian entrepreneur Ruben Vardanyan, president and CEO of Fortum Corporation Pekka Lundmark, managing director of the World Economic Forum Philipp Rösler and executive VP and COO of US-Russia Business council Randi Levinas.
Innovestor acted as the general partner of the event, therefore, participated in different parts of the program and hosted the VIP investor lounge. The finnish delegation arrived on 2d of June by private charter organised by Aii Corporation with Finnair. The guests enjoyed food and drinks as well as friendly atmosphere and inspirational presentations by representatives of growing companies Navigine, Yepson and Healthprint. Chairman of Innovestor Antti Parviainen was present at two panel discussions covering questions regarding new map of technology investments and european investment trends.
Wilhelm Lindholm, partner and MD of Innovestor in Russia, was moderating the VIP lounge program for prospective Finnish and Russian investors. According to Lindholm the startup scene in the country is an attractively perspective field for both investors and business owners. “The competition is tough for state of the art Russian technology innovations. We are often in competition against leading venture funds when funding the best tech companies”, says Lindholm.
