Skolkovo Foundation has opened applications for Startup tour 2016, a contest for promising high tech startups starting February 1 in Irkutsk and covering 11 Russian cities, as well as Almaty and Minsk.

The Skolkovo Foundation has begun accepting applications to participate in the Startup-tour 2016 competition. Registration is open on the website www.startup-tour.ru, Skolkovo said. The competition is scheduled to open on February 1, 2016, in Irkutsk.
Startup-tour is a project to find promising innovative startup teams working in the high-tech sector. In 2016, Startup-tour will visit 11 Russian cities, and will also travel to CIS countries — Kazakhstan (Almaty) and Belarus (Minsk). Over the course of the competition, the jury will evaluate more than 1,200 startups. Fifty market experts — businesspeople, mentors, business angels, representatives of investment funds and development institutions — will take part in the jury and in the tour’s mentoring program.
The winners of Startup-tour 2016 will be able to take part in the Startup Village conference and will share the 100 million prize fund provided by the Foundation for Assistance to Small Innovative Enterprises in Science and Technology.
“There are a huge number of talented scientists, inventors, and entrepreneurs living in Russia who are ready to bring unique ideas to life. For the fourth year now, Startup Tour has been becoming a launchpad for them and an opportunity to make themselves known. We see our role as helping, together with young promising startup teams, to build an innovative community in our country and accelerate the introduction of innovations into production,” said Renat Batyrov, CEO of the Skolkovo Technopark.
The competition program has changed significantly. In addition to the competition, participants will undergo training that will help them develop their projects and improve their business skills: the tour’s educational program includes a variety of sessions on global trends and international practices, and contains many practical classes and trainings to develop the personal and professional qualities of entrepreneurs; the mentoring session is a meeting where, through practical work together with a team of experts, startups will be able to create a suitable business model and receive advice on attracting investment.
The 2016 program is presented in five key areas: biological and medical technologies; biotechnology in agriculture and industry; industrial technologies and materials; energy and energy-efficient technologies; information technologies.