31.01.2019

Selection of startups for a trip to Silicon Valley ends in February

The traditional “demo day” will conclude the joint project of the famous American company 500 Startups and the Russian Sberbank.

On February 5, 30 teams, including ViewApp, will tell about their achievements to potential customers. They have actively worked in the accelerator during two months and are now ready to contest the right to visit the famous Silicon Valley. There will be seven startups attractive for the foreign investors among the winners. Teams will receive a well-deserved reward: four weeks they will study the American market and peculiarities of doing business abroad. They will have an opportunity to make a presentation of their startup in California.

The "demo day" will be attended by President of Sberbank German Gref, top managers of many large companies and venture funds, partners from the USA.

Russian-American Accelerator is a "forge” of promising projects

Sberbank and 500 Startups platform began to cooperate for the first time in autumn 2018, their program aims an active development of IT innovations. The competition was tough – over 800 applications were filed, but by the end of the year, the majority was filtered out and only 30 interesting products remained. The selection was made by Sberbank managers, 25 investment funds, American experts.

Sberbank has created a separate structural unit called “Sber X”, its responsibilities include development of the corporative ecosystem, introduction of advanced technologies, and interaction with the accelerator.

The first deputy chairman of the bank told media about criteria the jury used to determinate the best startups. Developments should be relevant for Sberbank and its partners, no less important condition – be in demand in foreign markets.

Priority areas include:

·       virtual cloud services;

·       the medicine;

·       e-commerce;

·       specialized programs (to improve the efficiency of the company's business processes, identification, etc

Internship process

Classes are held every day; their goal is to train contestants to promote their own projects.

The week starts with a lecture on marketing, start-up economics and other important topics. Then scheduled meetings with mentors, discussion of relevant problems. At the end of the week, teams report on the work done.

One day is devoted for meetings with investors or colleagues who have managed to start a successful business thanks to 500 Startups accelerator.

What are the benefits for start-up developers?

Some teams were initially quite skeptical when submitting an application, but then changed their attitude.

Practical training allows to expand your knowledge in different areas, to focus on achieving success.

Partners of the program are well-known brands like Auchan, MTS, Rambler, Magnit, etc. They are ready to support projects by testing them in real conditions.

Sberbank is also looking for valuable employees, attract useful product developers to their joint business.

Potential winners: a summary of the contestants

Sberbank clarified that among the leaders are 5 medical startups, 10 B2B resources, 6 services designed for online booking, there are successful solutions in the field of logistics, industrial and technical innovations. Teams presented several developments based on artificial intelligence, for example, a project aimed at restoring the musculoskeletal system operation in patients after a stroke, a voice assistant for business people.