On April 24, at the technopark of the special economic zone "Innopolis," the official "day zero" of the country's main venture industry event, the Russian Venture Forum, took place, bringing together 300 participants – experts, investors, representatives of startups and venture funds, the Association of Innovative Regions of Russia, large corporations, and development institutions.

The main theme of the RVF this year is "Technological Entrepreneurship: A Space of Higher Competencies."

As part of the business program of "day zero," a panel discussion on the role of the state, development institutions, and venture funds in supporting innovative projects was held with the participation of Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Tatarstan Roman Shaykhutdinov, Director of the Association of Innovative Regions of Russia Alexander Smekalin, and representatives of venture funds.

According to Alexander Smekalin, active technological development will allow our country to preserve its state identity and move forward. The Republic of Tatarstan is one of the leaders in this direction, so its experience is particularly interesting.

As Roman Shaykhutdinov noted, the main task facing the country in this direction is connected, firstly, with teaching schoolchildren and students entrepreneurship; secondly, with the creation of targeted and "smart" administration tools for entrepreneurs, for example, tax cashback and infrastructure for uniting the interests of investors and young entrepreneurs with technological ideas; and thirdly, with the protection of small companies' solutions for the Russian market. Large companies, instead of "absorbing" startups, which primarily develop based on commercial, entrepreneurial spirit and interest, should move towards supporting them.

At the panel discussion "Venture Investment Industry-2024: An Inside Look," venture market experts and corporate representatives discussed trends and forecasts for the development of the venture industry this year, as well as points of contact and options for cooperation for the successful implementation of high-tech projects. Speakers included Renat Khalimov, General Director of SEZ Innopolis; Damir Galiev, Director of the Investment and Venture Fund of the Republic of Tatarstan; Nikolay Evchenko, Innovation Director at Beeline; Nikita Rogozin, Head of the MTS Venture Fund; Ilya Goldt, Managing Director of the New Industry Fund; and others.

Also, symbolically, within the framework of the forum, the 25th Expert Council for the selection of startups for the SEZ Innopolis took place. Leading players in the venture market and corporate representatives reviewed 11 projects in areas such as artificial intelligence, financial technologies, digitalization of business processes, virtual reality, educational technologies, e-commerce, cloud technologies, and equipment diagnostics.

Based on the voting results of the jury members, 9 projects received a passing score and, accordingly, the status of a startup of the SEZ Innopolis. These include:

HalalCard – a halal neobank with a unified user ecosystem.

VR Concept – a multi-user software platform for creating 3D, VR, and AR projects.

Wildbox – a SaaS platform for analytics and promotion on marketplaces.

Academy of Artificial Mind – a new generation neural network educational platform "AMA."

Build Docs – a cloud service for digital as-built documentation for builders and developers.

Skylon – a telematics platform and equipment for monitoring equipment operational parameters.

Logopotam – an online school of speech therapy and child development for ages 3-8, providing online consultations with speech therapists and an AI virtual speech therapist.

Digital Kassa – a service for renting cloud-based cash registers for fiscalization of online payments, payments in vending machines, and courier delivery.

Neuroartist – an AI tool for generating graphics in a visual prompt editor.

The startups will be able to implement their projects on the territory of the special economic zone on favorable terms and gain access to its infrastructure and services. Skylon was also awarded a special nomination and a grant of 1 million rubles for Yandex Cloud services.

In addition, after the startup presentations, experts and jury members held a number of negotiations directly on the forum sidelines and agreed on piloting new projects with SEZ Innopolis, with promising deals already in sight.