Startup Village – the largest startup conference for technology entrepreneurs in Russia and the CIS

Latest post by Reuben Godfrey, our roving conference reporter. See more articles by Reuben here.

The Skolkovo Foundation is a non-profit organization founded in September 2010 by the Russian government with the objective of accelerating Russia’s transformation from a resource-intensive to an innovation-based economy. Based just outside Moscow, thhe Skolkovo Innovation Center has been called the Russia’s answer to Sillicon Valley. The area has over 1,400 high-tech startups and encompasses a new graduate research University established in collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Kicking-off it’s fourth year, Startup Village is essentially the biggest startup event in Eastern Europe. Last year there were 12 000 participants, this year over 15 000 people are expected. The speaker line-up includes;

– Knut Sauer, Vice President of Hyperloop Tech, will present the vacuum train project advertised by Elon Musk. This is a new means of transportation where passenger pods travel at a supersonic speed (over 1,200 km/h). The hyperloop pods will cover 600 km in as little as 35 minutes.
– Rösler Philipp, Managing Director and Member of the Managing Board of the World Economic Forum. Former Vice-Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, Federal Minister of Economics and Technology, and Federal Chairman of the Free Democratic Party (FDP).
– Derrick Xiong, co-founder of EHang who launched EHang 184 – a safe, smart and eco-friendly autonomous aerial vehicle designed for travelling short-to-medium distances. He is one of the World’s Top 100 Student Entrepreneurs, Forbes 30 Under 30 Chinese Entrepreneurs 2015 and 2016, and Most Innovative 50 Companies 2015 in China.
– Pekka Lundmark, CEO Fortum, the largest energy provider in Northern and Eastern Europe.
– Yoshihide Hayashizaki, Director of the RIKEN Preventive Medicine and Diagnosis Innovation Program, a leading international expert in genome editing.
– Mike Butcher, Chief Editor of TechCrunch, one of the most influential technology journalists in the world.
– Mike Safyan, co-founder of Planet Labs, one of the most successful satellite imaging companies with a fleet of over 100 satellites.
– Azad Gulzar, Head of Access Programs at Google India, Head of the Google RailWire Project to launch free high-speed Wi-Fi at railway stations in India.

Other speakers and mentors of the event: Alec Saunders, Senior Director of Microsoft Ventures, Ziegler Volker, Head of 5G Leadership, Chief Architect, Mobile Networks in Nokia, Eugene Kaspersky, CEO Kaspersky Lab, Ruben Vardanyan, President of Vardanyan, Broitman and Partners, and many others.

Young entrepreneurs and startups can participate in the Startup Village Competition, and win prizes ranging from $5,000 to $50,000. There will also be an exhibition of startup inventions – Startup Bazaar, with 100 new projects.

RG