Graduates of the Moscow Accelerator program were able to attract large clients and investors in three months, launch new business areas and increase profits.
The first track of the program, dedicated to the development and scaling of startups related to digital services, took place from January 17 to April 28. The project was implemented by the Moscow Innovation Agency and the Moscow Innovation Cluster with the support of the Moscow Department of Entrepreneurship and Innovative Development.
20 teams took part in the track “Digital Services”. The finalists presented their projects at the final demo day, which took place on April 28.
Three months after the completion of the track, its graduates showed good results. Despite the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic and the situation in the global economy, many of them have significantly increased the number of orders and revenue, as well as launched unique offers that were in demand by large corporations.
One of the winners of the Digital Services track, the developer of the online business service Pooling , reached a weekly order volume of 4,000, almost doubling its January figures. The company's project allows organizing the delivery of customers' goods to retail chains. After passing the "Moscow Accelerator", the startup launched a new initiative - "additional loads". With its help, any shipper can connect to the Pooling service and sell space in his car if the volume of his own orders does not allow filling it. According to Johnson & Johnson and Reckitt Benkiser, this option gave them the opportunity to save on transportation of goods by an average of 10 to 30 percent.
Another participant in the program - a startup Malivar- Sberbank got interested. The largest financial and credit institution invested in the project in the amount of 10 million rubles and became one of the shareholders, having received a stake in the company in 8.06 percent. Malivar studio has developed technology for creating and producing virtual models, artists and bloggers based on neural networks and computer graphics. The company creates for the customer a digital character from scratch or uses a ready-made one, and then comes up with a legend for the hero and justification of his virtuality. The development allows using a neural shell to make the model autonomous, that is, capable of performing independent actions. In addition, customers are provided with the technical ability to create content themselves. The startup works with AliExpress, Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Russia, Alena Akhmadullina and others.
SkillFolio Companypresented within the framework of the Digital Services track a platform for comprehensive diagnostics and development of “soft skills” in demand in the modern labor market - the ability to work in a team, creative thinking, emotional intelligence and others. The client undergoes testing, which includes working with interactive simulators, quests to identify role-based behavior patterns, an extended test for emotional intelligence and types of thinking. After diagnosis, a digital profile of the user's skills is created. On the basis of these data and consumer goals, an individual development path is created. For its implementation, the necessary materials have been collected on the platform. Within three months after acceleration, the startup reached payback and earned about 35 million rubles by the end of the first half of 2020,which is three times higher than last year's revenue for the same period. SkillFolio's clients include the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, the Higher School of Economics, the Skolkovo Moscow School of Management, the Artek International Children's Center, Rosneft, Yandex, Rostelecom, and Russian Electronics , Kelly Services, Ernst & Young, Novoskola, Uchi.ru, Foxford, Skyeng.
The “Digital Services” track of the Moscow Accelerator program lasted for 10 weeks. Project experts conducted consultations, master classes, workshops and traction meetings to analyze the potential demand for startups. The track's partner was the Yandex company.
The winners shared the prize fund of 10 million rubles.
The second track of the Moscow Accelerator brought together 30 startups in the field of biomedical technologies and started on April 20. The final demo day will take place on September 17th. In addition, on August 5, the acceptance of applications for a new track dedicated to financial technologies started . 30 projects will be selected to participate in it.