CORRECTING and REPLACING Russia’s Skolkovo IT Start-Ups Present to Silicon Valley

VCs and Potential Partners to Engage with Skolkovo on October 12th.

CORRECTION...by Skolkovo

SAN FRANCISCO--()--The address before the bullet points should read 1000 Marsh Road (sted 1100 Marsh Road).

The corrected release reads:

RUSSIA’S SKOLKOVO IT START-UPS PRESENT TO SILICON VALLEY

VCs and Potential Partners to Engage with Skolkovo on October 12th.

Startups from Moscow’s new Skolkovo technology city are visiting Silicon Valley this week in a follow up to the June 2010 visit by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. That visit yielded investments and partnerships from Google, Intel, Microsoft, and Cisco.*

The next wave of the Skolkovo initiative are in Silicon Valley this week, fact-finding, networking and presenting a range of innovations in IT categories including visual search, security, mobile, 3D animation, data analysis, simulation, games, cloud, and location services.

The startup Demo-Day on Wednesday October 12th will be led by Russian digital expert Alexander Turkot, Executive Director of the IT Cluster at Skolkovo. Previously he had a global career with IBM, and more recently he founded MySpace Russia.

“Our visit puts the dream into action – these are the first concerted steps to grow our own companies rather than exporting talent. We have innovative technologies with real world applications ready to develop or distribute. We’re here to show off our natural IT abilities, generate interest and of course, soak up Silicon Valley expertise. It’s a perfect opportunity for interested parties to make contact, and get on board with new ventures.”

Russian companies are renowned for what Fast Company has called their “unconventional approach” and examples such as the Yandex search engine and the Kapersky Laboratory anti-virus software were included by the magazine in its world top 50 innovation companies of 2011 (26th and 32nd respectively).

“We’re in evolution. Russian IT isn’t about hackers any more. It’s about these companies on display in Silicon Valley today – forward thinking world citizens with out-of-the-box solutions to complex issues,” said Turkot.

*In June 2011 Cisco announced a $1 billion five year commitment to Skolkovo to drive entrepreneurship and innovation.

About Skolkovo Innovation Center:

The Skolkovo innovation center is a high technology business area being built near Moscow. It will host five scientific communities that carry top priority for Russia – energy, information technology, telecommunications, biomedicine and nuclear technologies – as the country diversifies from being largely powered by natural resources. The 600 hectare complex designed by French architects AREP will be situated next to the campus of Skolkovo Moscow School of Management, a top-level business school founded by leading Russian and international companies.

The Skolkovo Foundation has received 1,000 applications from prospective companies. By the end of 2011 the Skolkovo IT cluster alone expects to have 100 companies registered as participants in the innovation center. Siemens, Boeing, IBM, Dell and Nokia are among other leading companies that have committed to participation at Skolkovo.

Russian government-led initiatives such as tax incentives to stimulate development and loosening of restrictions on importing foreign workers and technologies have been enacted to facilitate the high-tech hub. Over 200 laws have been amended to facilitate the participation of international companies at Skolkovo and to encourage sustainable innovation among Russian startups.

Quotes:

“There is a great experiment going on here in Russia right now. Russia has a great history of mathematical education and scientific research, but not such a great history of commercialization of the research. I’m very interested in what it takes to turn Russia into an innovative country.” - Former Intel CEO Craig Barrett, co-Chairman of the Skolkovo Foundation Council.

Demo Day October 12th:

The presentations by the Skolkovo startups are being hosted by Silicon Valley law firm Orrick, one of the leading technology and emerging companies law firms in the world.

Presentation by Skolkovo Startups

Wednesday, October 12, 11am – 1.15pm followed by lunch.

Orrick, 1000 Marsh Road, Menlo Park, CA 94025

  • Agent Plus – solutions for automation and control of mobile employees
  • Bazelevs Innovation – interactive 3D visualization of scripts for film, TV, theater
  • Choister – search and data analysis from web, search engines, social networks
  • CloudMatch – 3D virtual environments for video games, training, communications
  • ePythia – location-based planner for smartphones and cloud web services
  • Evanti – optimal utilization of communication channels in satellites, wireless systems
  • iBuild App – DIY engine for building mobile apps without needing programming skills
  • Kuznech – tool for visual search and indexing images on the internet
  • Rock Flow Dynamics – computational platform for petroleum reservoir simulation
  • CRT – biometric systems based on artificial intelligence and speech technology
  • CyberCop – global forensic systems to identify and prevent malicious cyber attacks
  • Pirate Pay – managing digital rights to distribute and protect popular entertainment
  • SpeakToIt – smartphone that talks and performs talks in natural language

Contacts

For Skolkovo
San Francisco
Barbara Hagin, 408-832-7626
bhagin@breakawaycom.com
or
New York
Catherine Gold, 212-905-3348
catherine.gold@sweeneyvesty.com

Release Summary

Startups from Moscow’s new Skolkovo technology city are visiting Silicon Valley this week in a follow up to the June 2010 visit by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

Contacts

For Skolkovo
San Francisco
Barbara Hagin, 408-832-7626
bhagin@breakawaycom.com
or
New York
Catherine Gold, 212-905-3348
catherine.gold@sweeneyvesty.com