Startup Village to kick off in Skolkovo on May 31 – June 1

About 20,000 people from 80 countries are expected to attend the 6^th Startup Village, the largest startup conference in Russia and the CIS. Startup founders will meet with the world’s leading accelerators, unicorns, investors, major technology corporations and government officials to discuss modern trends and present innovative ideas.

The business program includes over 150 interactive sessions and master classes on developing new markets, transforming business models and integrating breakthrough technology into business practice. Startup Village participants will be able to schedule their meetings with experts ahead of time. To this end, the organizers have designed a special service, SUV Matchmaking.

The interesting speakers at Startup Village 2018 include:

• Christopher Gavigan, Co-Founder, The Honest Company, a unicorn company founded by Jessica Alba
• Tristan Pollock, Venture Partner, 500 Startups, Artist Forbes 30 Under 30 2015
• David Siegel, CEO, Investopedia
• Henk van Houten, CEO, Royal Philips Head, Philips Research
• William Bao Bean, General Partner, SOSV, the world’s largest seed investment fund
• Mark Müller-Eberstein, CEO, Adgetec Corporation Global keynote speaker, Tedx Speaker
• Rumman Chowdhury, Senior Principal, AI, Accenture, author of Forbes Tech BBC 100 women

Best startups will be selected in two categories, Early Stage Projects and Companies. The former is for up-and-coming technological entrepreneurs. They will compete in four areas: IT, biomed, energy efficiency and energy saving, and industrial technology. The winner will get 2 million rubles to develop their project.

The Companies contest is for experienced market players with at least 1 million rubles in annual revenue. The jury will name the most promising projects in 19 areas, including digital technology in business, manufacturing, finance and media, digital health care, and energy-efficient transport. The main prize is 5 million rubles. Applications for both contests are to be submitted before May 13.

The conference will also include Startup Bazaar, an exhibition of projects where young teams will present promising Russian solutions, from prototypes to finished products. About 200 startups will take part in the exhibition this year.

In 2017, Startup Village gathered over 20,000 people from 80 countries. The event brought together 4,500 startups, 1,000 investors, 490 journalists and 350 semifinalists. A total of over 1,000 applications were submitted for the contests.

For more information, please go to the conference website: https://startupvillage.ru/

Accreditation for the media: https://startupvillage.ru/press-center/accreditation

About the Skolkovo Foundation

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. To achieve this objective, the Foundation is overseeing the creation of the Skolkovo Innovation Center, composed of more than 1,800 high-tech startups, Skolkovo Technopark, the Skolkovo Institute of Technology (Skoltech) – a new graduate research University established in collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology – and Skolkovo city, located near Moscow. Together, these entities establish a vibrant ecosystem of technology innovation and entrepreneurship. The cumulative revenue of Skolkovo’s startups reached $2,5 billion. They brought in more than $186 million in investment, creating 27,000 jobs and filing over 1,100 patent applications along the way. By 2020 over 2 million square meters of residential and office space will be built in Skolkovo with 35,000 people working daily in the Innovation Center. For more information:  http://www.sk.ru/en