Participants of the All-Russian Summer Gathering “Secure” Millions in Investments

The team of the V.P. Filatov Foundation arranged a meeting for participants of the All-Russian Summer Gathering “RUSSIA-LAND OF SCIENTISTS. MEDICINE OF THE YOUTH” with prospective investors and technology brokers. Young scientists presented their projects to experts, for now — in the format of a business simulation game called “TECHNO-BARGAIN”. The pitch session took place on the sidelines of Russian Health Care Week in Moscow.

The purpose of the game is to test young scientists’ abilities to convince potential investors that their medical startup is competitive and viable. Projects across the tracks “Active Longevity”, “Health Preservation”, “IT Technologies in Medicine”, and “Demography and Quality of Life” were submitted for technology broker evaluation.

The expert commission for the business game included both technology brokers and medical scientists from major research centers: Dmitry Alekseev, Director of the Project Office of the “University Technological Entrepreneurship Platform”; Kirill Kryuchkov, Lead Coordinator of the support program for early biomedical technology startups “Council from the Future”; and Vyacheslav Kolotvin, Deputy Head of the Commercialization Support Center of the Federal Institute of Industrial Property (FIPS). Representing the medical community as mentors for “MEDICINE OF THE YOUTH” were Sechenov University Professors Oleg Glazachev and Kamil Bakhtiyarov.

Participants, grouped into international teams, pitched startups at varying degrees of development. It became evident that investors are willing to back not only a “pilot prototype”, but also an early concept — provided they see scaling potential, innovativeness, and uniqueness in the medical development. The young scientists very convincingly proved the significance of their developments to innovation market practitioners.

Dmitry Alekseev, Director of the Project Office of the “University Technological Entrepreneurship Platform”, praised the international team model — where members reside in different cities and even on different continents — as highly viable. Following the game, the expert invited the “MEDICINE OF THE YOUTH” participants to submit applications for a real 1-million-ruble grant from his organization.

 – I saw genuinely viable projects, I saw the novelty of these initiatives, and I saw a definite capacity for commercialization — each project had an identifiable market and target consumer. Of course, more thought needs to be given to the business model. The startups have substantial work ahead, but they possess a very solid foundation, — said Dmitry Alekseev.

It is precisely in such an applied format that the V.P. Filatov Foundation team envisions future cooperation with participants of its programs.

Oleg Glazachev, Scientific Director of the V.P. Filatov Foundation, urged the authors of the presented projects to apply for the main “MEDICINE OF THE YOUTH” contest, the results of which will be announced in December. The top 20 authors will have the opportunity to participate in the Foundation’s acceleration program of the same name: undergo a 12-week course in technology entrepreneurship and collaborate with experts on advancing their developments.