A press conference dedicated to the 18th Russian Venture Forum was held at TASS. The main theme of the forum will be "Technological Entrepreneurship: A Space of Higher Competencies." The RVF will take place on April 25 and 26 in Kazan.

Deputy Minister of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation Daria Kiryanova, President of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tatarstan Rifkat Minnikhanov, Director of the Investment and Venture Fund of the Republic of Tatarstan Damir Galiev, and General Director of BARS Group Timur Akhmerov spoke about the forum's business program, venture market trends, technological entrepreneurship as a driver of economic development, and the key goals of the Year of Scientific and Technological Development in Tatarstan.

This year, the organizing committee of the Russian Venture Forum is chaired by Valery Falkov. During the press conference, Daria Kiryanova noted that 200 university startups will be presented at the Russian Venture Forum, and she also spoke about current tools for technological entrepreneurship: "It takes about seven years to produce a complex technology from scratch. A student studies for only five years, and it is obvious that if a technology is created from scratch, it will most likely not be realized. Therefore, the 'startup studio' tool appears, which is formed on the basis of the university. An operational and technological team is formed. A student comes, immerses their hypothesis, and tries to realize it. In this way, we carry out technological succession, when the university, as a competence center, tries to develop this technology further, even if the student has graduated and decided not to connect their life with technology and entrepreneurship."

Rifkat Minnikhanov spoke about the effectiveness of the technological entrepreneurship support model in the Republic of Tatarstan: "The republic developed the Tatarstan model for the development of technological entrepreneurship. The center of responsibility for the development of technological entrepreneurship in universities, the Tatarstan Academy of Sciences, began consistently building the overall contour, standards, and forming internal interaction schemes. It started with the most important thing – to create a reliable 'university - authorities - business' link for integrating new solutions into enterprises. Within the current message of accelerated development, import substitution, import advancement, and technological sovereignty, this link began to be supplemented with new participants at all stages of the project life cycle to ensure coordinated and sustainable development."

Damir Galiev spoke about the improved concept of RVF 2024. This year, the event takes place over two days for the first time, the number of events has doubled, and the forum's corporate identity and website have been updated.

The Russian Venture Forum will be divided into three blocks: congress, exhibition, and communication. The congress part will include a plenary session with the participation of the Minister of Science and Higher Education of Russia, Valery Falkov, and the Rais of the Republic of Tatarstan, Rustam Minnikhanov. Heads of development institutions, partners of venture fund management companies, and corporate representatives will also participate.

In addition to the plenary session, more than 20 events are planned, thematically divided into main blocks: ecosystem, venture investments, technological entrepreneurship, markets.

The exhibition will feature both startups and representatives of innovation infrastructure: universities, technoparks, industrial parks, special economic zones, IT parks.

50 technology startups from all over Russia will present their solutions and compete for investments of up to 50 million rubles. This year, a record number of applications was received from startups – 474. This is 50% more than last year.

The 15 finalists of the acceleration program will undergo an intensive eight-week program. Experts and mentors will work out a roadmap with the startups and prepare them for attracting the next round of investment. More than 60% of the startups that applied to the accelerator have a finished product and have already made their first sales. The share of startups scaling their business in the Russian and foreign markets is 21%.

On April 24, a "day zero" of the forum will be held at the site of the special economic zone "Innopolis." The event will include an invest-breakfast, a panel discussion, and an Expert Council for the selection of startups as residents of Innopolis.

"This year, we pay special attention to investors and business angels. On the main days of the event, April 25 and 26, a lounge area will be organized for them. Here, they will be able to communicate more closely with startups in a comfortable setting. Registration for investors is in the general order on the website. All investors will be accredited by the Russian Venture Investment Association (RAVI) and the Investment and Venture Fund of the Republic of Tatarstan. Also on these days, the venture games of the BRICS universities startup summit will take place. Participants will be students from different countries developing their technology startups," noted Director of IVF RT Damir Galiev.

Timur Akhmerov, General Director of BARS Group, spoke about how the company develops technological entrepreneurship, what results have been achieved, what tools are already being used, and also elaborated on the strategic tasks facing technology companies today.

The Russian Venture Forum has been held in Kazan since 2005. Over this time, more than 2,400 companies and 700 startups have participated in the business program and exhibition.