Russian government is opening a startup accelerator in Crimea

Let’s talk about start-ups. The Russian government recognizes that supporting promising ideas is important. For instance, recently it created the so-called FRII – Foundation for Development of Internet Initiatives. Creation of the non-governmental body was proposed by Russia’s President Vladimir Putin. In fact, it’s preparing to launch another accelerator to assist Russia’s promising start-ups. The Foundation has just announced that it would launch its next location in Crimea, which recently joined with Russia.

The Internet Initiatives Development Fund (IIDF, or FRII in Russian), a government-backed fund supporting startup development, will open a remote regional accelerator in Sevastopol, Crimea, as soon as this summer, the Russian business daily Kommersant reported last week. The fund is expecting to support five to seven projects, which will be evaluated on the local and national levels. Funding will be received based on the results of three month’s work in the accelerator. “There is no venture industry in Crimea in the usual sense, but several companies are engaged in outsourced software development,” Kommersant quoted the fund’s director Kirill Varlamov as saying. “Some of them, SoftServe, for example, intend to close their offices here because of the political situation, while local specialists — programmers, engineers — with recognized skills are left without work. The fund is a good alternative. With our help, the guys can start their own projects.”