Hardware has suddenly become a hot commodity that accelerators are turning their sights to it-even as far as Russia, TechCrunch reported.
The Navigator Campus will be the first private technology park focused on hardware that will open its doors in Russia. The park will be located in the Kazan region where the Volga and Kazanka Rivers converge. Russian technological experience will be showcased in such projects as consumer robotics, wearables, 3-D printing and "smart home" at the Navigator Campus, the report said.
Founders Ramil Ibragimov of Runa Capital and Vasil Zakyev of shtrafy-gibdd.ru and Ohmymentor.ru have backed the Navigator Campus with $4 million for its launch. The amount may not seem substantial but in Russia, $4 million is a lot of money. However, that's not all the funding they are slated to get. The GRAVIZapp angel fund which backs hardware startups will also be sharing a space there. They also intend to form a network of accelerators and hardware hacklabs in the region, with the plan to increase financing to as much as $30 million. This means that Navigator spaces will also be formed in nearby cities like Ufa and Perm, the report said.
Runa Capital Senior Partner and Acronis CEO Serguei Beloussov thinks that having access to venture capital mentors, scientific and business authorities and key players in the hardware industry like IBM, Dell, Intel, Samsung and Foxconn will translate to "more venture-backed hardware deals in Russia" soon, the report said.
So far, 93 startups in the fields of 3D printing, healthcare hardware, robotics and consumer electronics have already occupied the 120 available spots. Some of them, like Kiev-based iBlazr and NOVA 3D printer maker ENNOVA, have even secured early stage funding, the report said.
The report quoted Ibragimov as saying, "Our ambitious aim for the next 5-10 years is to launch this kind of projects in each and every Russian city with up to 1 million citizens in order to create a powerful hardware-community based on the Russian engineering history."
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