News

The EASTBOUND open international competition for startups, organized by VEB Ventures in collaboration with the Skolkovo Foundation and foreign partners, will be held for the fourth time on 21-23 October 2019 at the VIII Open Innovations International Forum.

The objective of the competition is to support Russian companies that offer technological solutions to enter the international markets, including in the areas of IT, IoT, AI, VR, aimed at creating a comfortable urban environment.

The fourth series of EASTBOUND will consist of three pitch sessions. Startups will present projects to large investors and businessmen from Korea, Japan and Singapore who will evaluate the appeal of their ideas for the overseas market. Pitch sessions will be held at the VEB Ventures booth as part of Open Innovations.

“This year, the EASTBOUND jury will include representatives of large corporations in three countries, where the state policy in the field of innovation is aimed at investing in small and medium-sized businesses, attracting breakthrough projects from abroad, and creating optimal conditions for their growth. I’m sure that participation in the competition will allow the best Russian projects to win the attention of the A-listers of the global venture market,” says Oleg Teplov, CEO of VEB Ventures.

“The venture capital market in Asia is almost as big as the American one. Investments in high-tech industries bring local startups to the international level and make Korea, Japan, and Singapore leaders in the global economy. The successful development of innovative projects is also boosted by active participations of public funds in this market. These are strong investors and reliable partners,” says Yuri Saprykin, Vice President for Regional and International Development of Skolkovo Foundation.

A key selection factor at EASTBOUND is the company's aptitude to enter the global market and create international partnerships. Only six projects will enter the final of the competition.

To take part in a pitch session, companies need to fill in a participant registration form by 7 October 2019 by uploading a short presentation about themselves in English in the format of “executive summary”. The questionnaire is published on the EAST BOUND website (http://eastbound.tech/)