Sberbank joined by Silicon Valley accelerator to look for promising Russian startups

By Andrei Skvarsky.

Silicon Valley-based accelerator 500 Startups has joined Russia’s biggest lender Sberbank in a programme to finance and promote Russian tech startups.

Twenty-five companies to be selected through a Russia-wide round of applications would receive seed investment of up to 10m roubles ($142,000) from Sberbank, according to a statement from the Moscow-based bank.

Applications are accepted from startups working in fields such as financial technology, blockchain, big data, the internet of things, machine learning, artificial intelligence, lifestyle services, cloud business-to-business services, advertising, education, cybersecurity, virtual reality and augmented reality.

Under the oversight of 500 Startups mentors, the 25 selected companies would work for nine weeks in Moscow brushing up projects that they would pitch at a demo day in Moscow at the end of that period.

At the demo day, Sberbank top managers, venture funds and private venture investors would choose seven of those startups to go to Silicon Valley, where they would spend a month honing their products and their business skills.

The seven firms would then pitch their projects to large companies and Russian and foreign investors at a demo day in San Francisco.

“It’s important that it’s selecting Russian startups that our joint project is focused on – nothing like this has ever been done in Russia with the participation of American venture investors before,” the Sberbank statement quoted the lender’s first deputy chief executive Lev Khasis as saying.

Applications are accepted until October 6. An applicant must be a Russian-registered entity that has developed a minimum viable product and built some clientele.

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