Biostart-2018
EFKO Group of Companies launches its own business accelerator of technological startups "Biostart"
EFKO Group of Companies, one of the largest agro-industrial holdings in Russia and food producers, announces the launch of the Biostart business accelerator for startups, which was created for the development of technological projects in agriculture, processing industry and biotechnology in Russia. The project will be implemented on the basis of the R&D Center of the Group – the Innovation Center "Biryuch-NT". The accelerator partners will be the Innovation Promotion Fund, Skolkovo, RVC and Kama Flow.
Projects in the field of biotechnology, genetics, breeding, cellular technologies and instrumentation are among the relevant areas that will be given preference during selection.
According to Alexander Kolbas, Deputy General Director for the development of the Innovation Center "Biryuch-NT", this is the first such large-scale corporate project in Russia in the field of biotechnology and agriculture.
"The development of an industrial, biotechnological and medical project is impossible without access to modern research equipment and production infrastructure, as well as the availability of interdisciplinary knowledge," notes Alexander Kolbas. - The accelerator will increase the "survival" of projects and will include an educational part and mentoring, both in the scientific and technical part of the project and in the commercial. But most importantly, startups will be given direct access to the resources and infrastructure of EFKO Group and the Biryuch-NT Innovation Center, as well as the opportunity to receive co-financing for the projects of the winners of the Start program of the Innovation Assistance Fund. We are confident that the implementation of such a project will allow Russia to create world-class breakthrough technologies."
Partners of the Biostart business accelerator and mentors for its participants, in addition to employees of EFKO Group, will be the Innovation Promotion Fund, Skolkovo, RVC and Kama Flow.
"Over the four years of partnership with RVC, EFKO Group has fully engaged in working with open innovations and tested various formats of work with startups – opened an R&D center, built close cooperation with many GenerationS graduates. Creating our own corporate accelerator is a new tool for the corporation, given the complexity of the task, we are also ready to provide expert and infrastructural support," said Ekaterina Petrova, Director of the GenerationS corporate accelerator.
Roman Kulikov, Director of Acceleration of the Cluster of Biological and Medical Technologies, Skolkovo Foundation:
"Biotechnologies are the future: food production, medicine production, disease treatment, the environment, waste recycling – these are all biotechnologies. In order to launch your biotech project, you need to build a connection with the industry, because it is extremely difficult to engage in biotechnology in isolation."
Evgeny Borisov, Development Director of the investment company Kama Flow, draws attention to the fact that the practice of creating corporate accelerators in Russia is only gaining momentum, although the demand from startups and the market is already obvious, so the initiative of EFKO Group is very timely. Evgeny Borisov emphasizes: "EFKO Group, as an advanced innovative company, is an excellent industrial partner for early-stage technology projects, such a format of interaction between a large corporation and a small knowledge-intensive business will help to remove the lion's share of problems that most startups face at the start one way or another."
Projects with completed research and development that require applied research and prototype production, projects with completed R&D that need pilot and industrial tests, as well as projects with completed industrial tests that need investments to launch production will be able to participate in the accelerator.
The Biostart business accelerator program involves an intensive educational program, direct work on the production and testing of a prototype under the guidance of an experienced mentor. The work will be carried out from the idea to the development of production technology, the manufacture of an industrial design, the compilation of commercial applications and sales scripts, customer search and market entry.
More detailed information about the Biostart business accelerator can be obtained on the official website of BIOSTART.TECH.
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