ACIG took part in the 7th Kazan Venture Fair.

On April 25 the capital of the Republic of Tatarstan hosted the 7th annual Kazan Venture Fair, organized with the support of the President of the Republic of Tatarstan.

For the first time there was a separate Investment Forum of the Association of Innovative Regions of Russia (AIRR), opened for discussing important topics concerning development of separate constituent entities of the Federation.

The formal opening session of the Fair and the AIRR Investment Forum was held with participation of the President of the Republic of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov, the Minister for Education and Science of the Russian Federation Andrey Fursenko, Executive Director of AIRR Ivan Bortnik, Deputy Minister of Economic Development of the Russian Federation Oleg Fomichev and Executive Director of Russian Association of Direct and Venture Financing Albina Nikkonen.

Chairman of the ACIG Supervisory Board Viktor Tolmachev took part in the profile events of the Investment Forum: exhibition of regional projects of the largest venture companies, and a series of round tables focused on the working processes of interaction between investors and regions, the mechanism of establishing innovation environment in the regions and the work of investors with innovation projects.

During the Venture Fair the formal meeting of Viktor Tolmachev and the representatives of the Ministry of Energy, the Ministry of Economy and the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Tatarstan was held, during which the important issues of regional development were considered and the aspects for further comprehensive cooperation of the Republic of Tatarstan and ACIG within the framework of sustainable development of Russia were outlined.

More than 60 companies from Russia, Lithuania and China, which presented their projects with the average required investments volume of 25 million US dollars, and representatives of numerous big Russian and foreign corporations took part in the Fair. The important issues pertaining to developing an innovation-based market in the country, establishing a special microclimate, necessary for substantial development of entrepreneurship, were discussed.

Andrey Svinarenko, Deputy Chairman of ROSNANO Board, positively assessed the Fair and noted that such events provide a platform for presenting a great number of investment projects, allowing to better assess the state of the innovation market in the country.

In his report, Director of RT Investment and Venture Foundation Ainur Aideldinov analyzed the system of developing an investment elevator in the Republic, which had been established 7 years ago to provide comprehensive support for start-ups. Besides, as the Head of RT Investment and Venture Foundation noted, the increased scope of the Fair demonstrates a positive trend in the investment market: while last year the total volume of the required investments was 225 million US dollars, this year it makes up 320 million US dollars.

Foreign guests of the Fair appreciated the high level of the Tatarstan investment market development, confirming the need to establish a separate model of the market development for the Republic of Tatarstan, and also discussed a number of issues of attracting foreign investments.

For the first time a delegation of the European Business Angels Association took part in the Kazan Venture Fair. Andreas Paolo, Vice-president of the Association, pointed attention to the need to create regional nets of business angels, which will provide for joint investments with foreign companies on a wider scale.

According to the participants of the Fair, discussing all the above-mentioned issues became a good start for developing investment market, attracting foreign capital and establishing a favorable microclimate for private entrepreneurship.

Within the context of its activities, ACIG is interested in implementing initiatives for comprehensive development of regions, including strengthening the country’s investment market. In this connection, the ACIG representatives highly appreciated the Venture Fair as an important event of a Federal importance.