Rustam Minnikhanov – to young entrepreneurs: ‘I thought you visited night clubs, rested but you…’
Kazanshoes insoles for phone charging won Kasperskaya’s heart who gave a grant at 500,000 rubles to the developer at KazanSummit
The second part of the Laboratory of Ideas of IT-start-ups of the 2nd Kazan OIC Youth Entrepreneurship Forum took place within a scope of KazanSummit-2016 on 20 May. This time 15 selected projects were to be presented in front of a delegation headed by the President of the Republic of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov. A project of a young man from Morocco who offered a gadget charging a phone while walking was given a special attention. Details are in the piece of Realnoe Vremya.
'I'm ready to invest!'
Each presentation was given three minutes, and questions were given during the same amount of time. 15 members of the expert board voted for the projects. They could choose three variants: 'I'm ready to invest!', 'I'm ready invest if…' and 'I'm not ready to invest'.
A project of halalguide.me was presented first. It is a map demonstrating places with halal food. The resource also gives an opportunity to ask an imam a question and look at prayer timetable. The halal guide was launched in 2012 in Kazan.
The second project was devoted to the preservation of trees and was called after bonobo, often called pygmy chimpanzee. The name of the resource is BeBonobo!.. BeBonobo is a free online network that connects individuals and businesses to list unwanted and search for any types of wanted items in the same town or city.It is saves you money, reduces waste, saves resources from exploitation and greenifies environment. First of all, it is designed to save natural resources in Malaysia and Singapore. It is planned to distribute it in Australia, etc.
Developers from Kazan presented Ruh.im project that allows to manage objects with the help of a special app – the guys even demonstrated how it's possible to turn a lamp on and turn it off at a distance. The developers plan to develop a voice control.
The fourth presentation was made by developers from Izhevsk. They demonstrated Boxglass glasses of virtual reality. The very glasses are made of paper where a phone can be placed. A special application is to be downloaded in advance. By the way, these apps are also created by these guys. If on the first day of the Laboratory their creation was skeptically greeted by the experts, on the second day the Minister of Information and Communications of the Republic of Tatarstan Roman Shaikhutdinov estimated the project.
'I advise to enter a public market. Tatarstan is the first region ready to order a video for demonstration of technical, historical and cultural potential of the Republic of Tatarstan. And then, please, give your contacts, we are ready to cooperate with you,' the Minister addressed the developers.
Walking on foot instead of sockets
But a project of a young man from Morocco seemed to be a real bomb. He offered special 2 mm insoles with the help of which it is possible to charge a phone while walking! He constructed a device that will collect the body energy.
Rustam Minnikhanov expressed his interest in the project and specified: how much time is needed to have a completely charged phone. As it turned out, only 2,5 miles are necessary, which is approximately 4 km, to charge the phone at best. And the device will cost about 400 rubles.
The start-up gathered a record number of votes – 10 of 'I'm ready to invest!', 2 of 'I'm ready to invest if…' and 2 of 'I'm not ready to invest'.
By the way, the project was also highly estimated by a strict jury member Nataliya Kasperskaya, head of InfoWatch. She was the person who gave the young man from Morocco the biggest grant equal to 500,000 rubles for the development of the project.
An entrepreneur from Kashmir, India, presented a Silk Road project. It is a platform for purchase and sale of souvenirs from different countries of the world. Any thing can be placed on the platform – from leather clothes to furniture. 'Kazan will be known around the world,' the young man noted when he said that souvenirs from the capital of Tatarstan could be presented too. He brought a souvenir from India, which was given to the President of Tatarstan as a sign of gratitude of his people. A start-up from Germany was the last project of the first part of the Laboratory. He offered an application that allows to find a person with similar interest via existing social networks with the use of filters.
'I worried about the budget of Tatarstan for these 6 months a bit…'
Only the first part of the Laboratory took place together with the VIP. The second part of the projects was estimated without the President. Two Presidents – the President of the Tatarstan and president of OIC Youth Entrepreneurship Forum Elshad Iskandarov respectively – said in the middle of the event their parting words and expressed their impressions of what they heard. Elshad Iskandarov took the floor first – he offered the young man from Morocco to change the name of his start-up and call it Kazanshoes.
'I worried about the budget of Tatarstan for these 6 months a bit because the vice-PM voted for all programmes,' Iskandarov told a joke and noted that actually it was good.
According to him, five best project will be financed by Islamic Development Bank. He also presupposed that a cooperation with the government of Tatarstan would be a result of a talk with Rustam Minnikhanov.
Having stood on the rostrum, the President of Tatarstan immediately noted 'my English is so-so, this is why you will have to listen in Russian,' these words were greeted with loud applauses of the people.
'We see how KazanSummit is successfully developing. And I think you event matches our programme very well – it enriched us. Thanks a lot to the president of the Youth Entrepreneurship Forum Mr. Iskandarov and you all for the activity you demonstrated. I thought you visited night clubs, rested, but it turns out you're very clever, and we are ready to buy any your project because actually there were presented very interesting innovative projects. I congratulate you, thank you for good projects,' the President of Tatarstan expressed his gratitude.
He also noted he was very pleased to see the cooperation of Selet, a youth movement in Tatarstan, and youth organization of OIC countries. The President completely supports Iskandarov concerning the idea to start a work on a permanent basis in IT-park.
Ak Bars gave 100,000 to Kazan citizens
Participants from Kazan opened the second part of the Laboratory – they presented simulators to teach operators in oil and gas sectors. They were followed by Palestine – Linkage for the organisation of events. Click-storm stats, a commercial game project, was the tenth out of fifteen. The participants from Iran presented a start-up called Evarin. It deals with marketing services.
Another team from Kazan, which is a resident of IT-park and Innopolis, presented a platform for construction services producers. It has all suppliers with prices and recommendations. A project called Sapron drew the investors' attention, as a result of which the developers got two prizes at once – a grant at 100,000 from Ak Bars and 30,000 from a business angel Aleksander Rumyantsev, who also offered to present them and discuss their financial model for further investment.
There were presented two educational projects too: the Pakistani showed Educoders – an online tool that helps students to do their homework and projects, and another Pakistani project is Madnum, we wrote about it previously.
Salat time, an app designed for learning surahs and finding a direction, was the next project created especially for the Muslims.
The event ended with a group photo and plans on the organisation of the next Laboratory – within the scope of KazanSummit-2017.