‘A number of Innopolis residents face difficulties with foreign financing’

Director General of Innopolis SEZ Renat Khalimov answered the question of Realnoe Vremya about the situation with companies that existed at the expense of foreign financing:

“A number of companies that had foreign customers have faced difficulties, including money transfers, and some customers began to refuse. But mostly, more than 90% of the decisions were focused on the Russian market," he said.

As Renat Khalimov noted, Innopolis SEZ focused more often on Russian companies than on foreign ones, and therefore, there is no large outflow of foreign enterprises from the city. Those who worked with foreign customers eventually found ways to preserve their sales markets.

“Probably, this is our difference from Skolkovo, where there are a lot of international companies, so they felt a serious outflow. Then we thought that it was not good and we should actively attract foreign investors, and even started this work. Now we've realised that we guessed right with that we used to give the best conditions to Russian enterprises," the speaker added.

He also answered the question about Mircod group of companies. As it became known to Realnoe Vremya, it was engaged in biotech and found itself on the verge of collapse. As a result of the rupture of Russia's relations with Western countries, the business was decapitated — central office, the source of funding, is now located in an unfriendly country.

“We connected them with several funds that work on foreign investments. It is clear that they had a condition there for the organisation of a legal entity and, in principle, a business outside of Russia. They are currently conducting these negotiations. The team has been preserved. Most of them are located in Kazan. It's a spin-off. That is, a separate direction from the main legal entity," Khalimov said.

According to the CEO, less than 3% of companies found themselves in a similar situation. This is less than 10 enterprises out of 336.

In 2022, Innopolis received grants totaling 286,5 million rubles. Of these, 59,8 million rubles are accounted for by the Russian Fund for the Development of Information Technologies (RFRIT).