City, corporations, startups

Moscow Accelerator displays Russian startups to international markets

On December 6, the Demo Day track of Transport & Mobility of the Moscow Accelerator project was held at the Labor Hab of the Krasnoy October, in the Red October. We attended the event and asked Ksenia Borbachev, Deputy General Director of the Moscow Innovation Agency, about what the Moscow Accelerator is and what prospects in the field of innovation and the development of acceleration programs are waiting for us.

- Ksenia, what is the Moscow Accelerator? And how does it differ from others?

- “Moscow Accelerator” - a whole ecosystem of projects and services, and it can be called unique. There is no other accelerator that works at the junction of three target audiences: a city, large corporations and startups. Our task is to interest everyone. We can offer innovative solutions and products for any request to the city. We help corporations significantly save money on the organization of the accelerator and the collection of relevated funnel of startups. When the corporation implements the accelerator on its own, it spends tens and hundreds of times more means and resources of specialized employees. And for startups, we are interesting in that the Moscow Accelerator is the shortest and most direct path to cooperation with corporations and city structures, and our graduates often talk about this. We launch up to seven industry accelerators per year, when other accelerators implement three to four tracks.

“But not only partners work with startups?”

- Certainly. Despite the fact that we attract external experts, we have a competent internal examination. Moreover, we must show the results that all project participants have achieved: the city, startups and corporations. We follow the successes of graduates, accumulate and promote information about their achievements. In addition to the accelerator itself, there is a prying program where we work with our graduates for three months, we help to enter international markets and solve more large -scale problems.

- Does others have a prystick?

- Not everyone at. We don’t care what happens to the participants after the end of the accelerator. Demo Day, of course, is the final of the track, but nothing ends for its participants. After some time, we invite them to the Program Program. There are many different initiatives in which startups can participate, and we give such an opportunity.

- At the moment, you have more than forty partners, are there any plans to expand the partner network, for example, in 2022?

- We are constantly working on this. Initially, the Moscow Accelerator was planned as a project that will work not only in the Moscow market, but also on the world. Starting this year, we began to actively develop international cooperation. Now we work very tightly with Korea. Now we can display and scale our startups in Korea, and vice versa.

-Perhaps there will be some kind of international track?

- Yes, we will launch an international accelerator with Korea next year.

- Let's get back to the tracks. What are the winners of the tracks?

- The best graduates get the opportunity to cooperate with partners: for example, the launch of a paid pilot with a corporation. And this is a very good example, as a result of which startups reduce the way to the end consumer, and corporations receive the innovative projects they need.

By the way, another point why corporations prefer to work with us: it is no secret that many large companies work with innovation. But even they come to the Moscow Accelerator, because we can take the best decisions and surprise our partners for less time and money. A striking example is Futurebank track with Uralsib Bank. Many startup participants sent their decisions to Uralsib directly and did not receive feedback. Our accelerator helped to highlight the strengths of their projects and ultimately gave a chance to make paid pilots with a partner.

- What do the winners of the tracks get?

Firstly, everyone who got to the accelerator is already great fellows. But sometimes in our accelerators there are winners who receive cash grants (in the track “Digital Services”, our partner Yandex formed a prize fund - 10 million rubles - which was divided by two winners). Most often, participants are awarded certificates for paid pilots and other prizes. Some graduates receive grants from Moscow Seed Fund.

- We talked today with the participants of the Transport & Mobility track. One participant said that for him, for example, it was very important to obtain additional business communications not only with experts, but also with participants-because there is also a certain growth point where they can additionally find new customers. Is there any internal community where you help startups work with each other?

- Yes, I have. As soon as the participants undergo an accelerator, they are produced on Demo Day, they are added to the Alumni club of graduates of the Moscow Accelerator. Now there are more than 200 participants. And this is very convenient: firstly, it is a space for communications with like-minded people. Exchange opinions, find someone-all this is possible in our Alumni. When graduates join the chat, they introduce themselves, talk about their project. Secondly, in this chat we send news, announcements of events or invite you to some activity as part of a porch. For example, after concluding an agreement on partnership with Korea, the Korean side asks to provide a list of startups for venture funds and corporations that have a request on certain topics. We immediately look at our graduates, select solutions that correspond to the requests, and our technological companies have the opportunity to show their projects at the international level. There is, for example, an event with Israeli funds - we act according to the same scenario. There was also an event with the British Embassy: they were as organizers, and we invited startups. This is another way to display your decisions to the international market or the opportunity to get advice or support.

- You are talking about foreign markets: Korea, Israel, Great Britain. And what other countries are there, which are interested in our startups and, possibly, on the contrary. Do we have a need for their startups?

- We have no restrictions. It all depends on the requests. We are open to cooperation and welcome the development of international partnership. Some countries are interested in Russian technologies and startups, such as Brazil, Germany and the UAE. There are countries that are ready to develop technological businesses in Russia, for example, Korea and Finland. We are ready for cooperation and are always happy with joint achievements and results.

- Summing up what could you single out the main advantage of the “Moscow Accelerator” for partners?

- “Moscow Accelerator” is the entrance point for all players of the innovation industry, where everyone will find what he is looking for.

Timofey Pronkin