Ecosystem of Innovations Forum’s participants will shape a vision of the Russian VC market development strategy
What an incredible last week. I was given the honor of representing both the United States and China at RVC’s 4th Ecosystem of Innovation Forum in Sochi. During the two day forum we discussed the future of Russia’s the Venture Capital markets and what is needed to help it become a thriving mature capital marketing in the near future. We also drilled down further to talk about the innovative potential and growth around Russia’s startup ecosystem throughout the country. It will be exciting to see how our advice and insights shape the future of both ecosystems and their developments in the next year. Here’s more about the event.
The 4th Annual Ecosystem of Innovations Forum took place on November 30 – December 1, 2017 in Sochi, Krasnaya Polyana. The Forum was organized by RVC, state owned Fund-of-Fund (FoF) and the government agency.
The main agenda of the Forum was the discussion of proposals aimed at the Russian Venture Capital (VC) market development strategy. In accordance with the Government Order and the Roadmap for the Innovative Development, the Strategy that should be developed by the end of 2018. The Ministry for the Economic Development along with RVC would undertake the task of setting up a new course.
The Ecosystem of Innovations Forum is a starting point of establishing the VC market development strategy as a planning document.
Prominent experts from the ecosystem professional community will discuss actual data and results of 2017, identify current trends and propose new legislative initiatives for the venture sector. The Forum’s participants are expected to shape a vision for the VC market development strategy. The results of their work will be presented to the Ministry for the Economic Development of the Russian Federation.
Alexander Povalko, CEO of RVC, stated: "The idea of shaping a mature VC market to ensure technological leadership of Russia at the global level is a mission of RVC, adopted in the new company’s strategy. In today’s world, VC market is an attribute of the most developed economies, setting out a solid basis for the competitive advantages of these countries. Nowadays, Russian VC market seems to be disproportionate to the scale of the Russian economy. However, we expect it to reach the volume comparable to the VC markets of the leading European countries in the next 10-15 years. Participants of the Ecosystem of Innovations Forum are going to look in decades ahead to the future to find the answer of how to get there".
The purposes of the Ecosystem of Innovations Forum in 2017:
Projects and Technologies Track: to discuss how to provide the sufficient pipeline of the quantity/quality of projects for the Russian venture ecosystem in 2018-2020. View of the project’s supplier and consumer.
Investments Track: to estimate the forecast on the Russian VC market for the next 5-7 years and to share views on the prospective challenges for investors; to figure out market competitive advantages, including for foreign VCs.
Society Track: to define what does it mean to be a successful technology entrepreneur and how the state can encourage them to start a technological business and to significantly increase the number of the Russian successful technology entrepreneurs.
The key results of 2017, forecasts on the VC market as well as the global and sectoral trends will be at the forefront of debates. A number of strategic sessions are planned, concentrating on various aspects of the venture ecosystem, including normative restrictions, technological transfer, and economic expectations.
The Plenary session on The landscape of a mature venture market addressed the state policy on the Russian VC market development and the key elements of a VC market infrastructure along with their evolution. Leading this central discussion of the Forum includes;
- Oleg Fomichev, State Secretary – Deputy Minister of Economic Development of The Russian Federation
- Alexander Povalko, CEO of RVC
- Alexander “Sasha” Galitsky, Managing Partner of Almaz Capital Partner,
- Alexandre Lupachev, Director at Russia Partners Advisers
- Derek L. Bittar, co-Founder and Managing Partner of IndicatorCapital
- Kyle Ellicott, co-Founder of ReadWrite and Chief Labs Officer of ReadWrite Labs
300+ experts from the leading regions of the Russian Federation and representatives of 50+ innovation infrastructure entities attended the Forum. All the segments of the innovation ecosystem – from venture investors and business angels to technology entrepreneurs and National Technology Initiative working groups, from development institutions and innovative clusters to representatives of universities and scientific communities – will be involved in the strategy development process.
The Key Speakers of the Forum:
- Alexander Povalko, CEO of RVC
- Alexander “Sasha” Galitsky, Ph.D., Managing Partner of Almaz Capital Partners
- Alexandre Lupachev, Director at Russia Partners Advisers
- Derek L. Bittar, co-Founder and Managing Partner of IndicatorCapital
- Kyle Ellicott, co-Founder of ReadWrite and Chief Labs Officer of ReadWrite Labs
- Alexey Kachay, Deputy Director – Strategy, Fund for Infrastructural and Educational Programs (FIEP), RUSNANO
- Alexey Konov, Managing Partner of RBV Capital Venture Fund
- Sergey Kerber, Head of Investment Projects and Programs Direction as the Managing Director of the Company
- Vitaliy Polekhin, President of National Business Angels Association (NABA)
- Konstantin Sinushin, Managing Partner of the Untitled Venture Company
To follow, I will provide highlights from my learnings at the event and details of both my talks around mature Venture Capital markets and the model for a success startup ecosystem.
For pictures and additional materials please visit: http://innovation360.ru/en/materials/
About RVC
RVC is a government fund of funds and a development institute of the Russian Federation, one of Russia’s key tools in the building of the national innovation ecosystem. The main objectives ofRVC are encouraging the creation of Russia’s venture capital industry and performing the functions of the Project Office of the National Technology Initiative (NTI). RVC’s authorized capital amounts to USD 509M. RVC’s capital is owned in full by the Russian Federation represented by the Russian Federal Agency for State Property (Rosimuschestvo). The total number of RVC funds has reached 26 with their total size of USD 595M. The share of RVC is USD 373M. The number of innovative companies approved for investment by RVC funds reached 216 in 2017. The total volume of approved investments is USD 288M.
Posted originally on Linkedin.
