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Country Guide
Russia
Guest Editor
Vladislav Zdorenko
CEO at Startupbootcamp Russia
Vladislav Zdorenko is a co-founder of the technology entrepreneurship development company Startech.vc, CEO of Startupbootcamp Russia, a venture investor and ideologist of the development of an innovation ecosystem in Russia. In 2018, Vladislav and his partner Oleg Linnikov founded the MIPT accelerator Phystech.Start, which takes place twice a year. In 2020, Startupbootcamp Russia, in partnership with Microsoft and EY, launched the Global Pilots program to launch pilot projects in the global market. Vladislav focuses on investing in companies across industry entertainment, game, biotech, AR/VR.
Guest editors are local ecosystem leaders: successful founders, investors, or thought leaders. Have someone in mind? Nominate a country guest editor.
Disclaimer: all content within the Startup Ecosystem Summary and Editor’s Guide sections is written by and reflects the personal perspective of the guest editor. The guest editor is not responsible for content within the Country Snapshot and Community sections, as much of this content is compiled from external sources and does not necessarily reflect the guest editor’s view.
Startup ecosystem summary
Key Startup Cities
Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Kazan
Connected Country Ecosystems
USA, China
Differentiators
- Cheap and qualified specialists
- A large network of experienced tech alumni and mentors
- Productive and creative founders
Challenges
- Lack of venture investors and funds (domestic and foreign)
- Small consumer population
- Lack of business support instruments
Editor's Guide
Introduction
Russia has always been well-known for its advanced technologies and high-quality engineers. Most large multi-national technology companies have Russian developers and programmers. The wealth of senior tech talent has driven the development of the Russian startup community. Today, this community is more active than ever before, as more experienced talent transitions to starting their own businesses. This is further supported by the rise of educational programs surrounding entrepreneurship corporations looking to partner with early-stage projects, and finally the emergence of venture studios. Importantly, many of the startups emerging in this next wave of innovation adopt an international mindset from the beginning, rather than focusing only on the domestic consumer population.
Outlook
The main obstacle for continued ecosystem growth is the lack of investment capital. For the most part, international funds do not have operations in Russia. Many Russian private funds operate in Luxembourg, Ireland and other countries, choosing to focus primarily on investing in the US market. Additionally, Russian enterprises have started to use international scouting to work with the world’s best startups, but few of these companies have acquired local startups, resulting in a relatively small number of exits.
The focus of Russian investment on other markets rather than the local ecosystem means that the success of Russia’s startup ecosystem is dependent on accessing foreign capital. Therefore, it’s crucial for Russian startups to quickly enter international markets and attract investment from international venture players. The challenge in doing so is the geopolitical position of Russia.
Featured Tech Startups
Editor’s choice of the country’s top 10 emerging tech startups.
- Amixr
Developer Tools
Moscow - Arenum Games
Gaming
Moscow - Checkme
Healthtech
Moscow - Dbrain
Artificial Intelligence
Moscow - Legion Farm
Gaming
Novosibirsk - MaxBionic
Medtech, Robotics
Moscow - Mubert
Music Tech
Moscow - Osome
Fintech
Moscow - StudyFree
Edtech
Moscow - VCV
HR Tech
Moscow
Startup Showcase
Editor’s pick of which ‘Featured Startup’ is especially worth following and why.
Amixr is an incident management platform. It offers a precisely defined recipient and delivery channel with a unique UX that results in up to a 12x drop in median time to repair and avoids engineering burnout.
The co-founders have extensive technology experience in both Russia and the US. They previously worked at Cisco, but decided to create their own startup to solve a core issue for devops developers. Amixr was the only startup from Russia that completed the 500 Startups acceleration program in 2020. Before joining 500 Startups, they raised an early-stage round of US$500,000.
Focus Industries
Editor’s choice of the industries with the most potential for technology disruption and growth.
FintechAt the beginning of the 2000s, Russia lagged far behind international fintech trends, but this enabled it to leapfrog other countries by introducing new technologies earlier than most others. For example, Raiffeisenbank, an international banking group, developed and launched its innovative fintech solutions in Russia before expanding them to other regions.
HealthtechSince the time of the Soviet Union, a lot of money has been spent in the development of the biotechnology sphere. Russia has strong educational/research institutions focused on healthcare and the cultivation of healthcare specialists.
ITIn Russia, IT specialists have higher salaries than the average person, but still make much less than developers in other countries. Taking advantage of this dynamic, many Russian founders raise large rounds from international funds, but spend much less money than their international competitors on talent. The popularity оf IT continues to grow among the young population and IT educational resources are more available than ever before.
Talent
Editor’s perspective of the maturity level of talent in the ecosystem.
- Technical Talent
- Marketing Talent
- Experienced Talent
- International Talent
Culture and History
Editor’s commentary on how the country’s culture and history have impacted the ecosystem.
Russia has a large population, but because of the political environment, there is a small middle class. As a result, it is quite difficult to develop B2C startups, and venture capital investments from local funds/business angels are mainly received by companies setting up a legal entity in other jurisdictions. On the other hand, there is a precedent for large-scale startup success: internet giant Yandex remains the leading local search engines, and also acquired Uber’s operations in Russia in 2017.
Interested in becoming more involved in this ecosystem and connecting with local ecosystem leaders? Let us know.
Community
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Active Investors
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Incubators & Accelerators
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Startups Raising Capital
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Startups Hiring
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Coworking Spaces/Hubs
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Events
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Government Programs
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Non-Government Organizations
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Universities
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Tech Publications
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Reports & Infographics
Active Investors
There’s more to be discovered! Help us showcase this startup community by adding information.
incubators
HSE INC (Moscow): We are HSE INC - Business Incubator of the Higher School of Economics. Our mission is to increase the number of entrepreneurs. We want to change the world through entrepreneurship.
Startech VC (Moscow)
accelerators
IIDF Accelerator (Moscow): The IIDF Accelerator is the best program in Russia for accelerating business development on the Internet. The program includes consulting, educational, marketing and legal support for the Fund, access to more than 250 best market experts, an individual tracker, as well as work with other successful teams in an excellent office in the center of Moscow.
Startups Raising Capital
There’s more to be discovered! Help us showcase this startup community by adding information.
Startups Hiring
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conferences
Russian Venture Forum (Kazan)
Startup Village (Moscow)
meetups
There’s more to be discovered! Help us showcase this startup community by adding information.
Government Programs
Innovation Agency of Moscow: We help technology businesses refine and bring new products to market. We find teams for large business to solve technological problems. We test and implement innovative solutions in the city.
Moscow Innovation Cluster: A platform for the introduction of innovation and the development of cooperation between large corporations, industry, SMEs, educational and scientific organizations, development institutions and the city.
Skolkovo Innovation Center: The Skolkovo Innovation Center is a high technology business area at Mozhaysky District in Moscow.
Non-Government Organizations
There’s more to be discovered! Help us showcase this startup community by adding information.
Reports & Infographics
There’s more to be discovered! Help us showcase this startup community by adding information.
Check out our Global Startup Ecosystem Database to discover top startups and ecosystem resources around the world!
Country Snapshot
Economy
(Global avg. 3.0%)
(Global avg. 2.3%)
Society
Are we missing something? Help us showcase this ecosystem by suggesting additional content. Join us as a Startup Universal contributor!
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