OREANDA-NEWSA joint fund of Skolkovo Ventures and the Russian Venture Company (RVC) will invest about 200 million rubles in the development of software for optimizing production processes using digital twin technology and artificial intelligence, the RVC press service said on Wednesday.

BFG Group is a Russian engineering IT company whose software allows you to create a digital production model and optimize business processes using artificial intelligence technologies. By reducing production cycles and volumes of work in progress, a company can increase profits several times. The first investment tranche of 50 million rubles has already been provided to the developer company, the remaining funds will be allocated after the terms of the agreement are met.

“Investing in one of the largest Russian software developers to optimize production processes is a logical step in the fund’s strategy to increase the competitiveness of Russia's industry on the world stage. It is extremely important that the company's product is already in demand by the fund’s corporate investors and can be further integrated into their business processes", said Alexei Basov, deputy general director and investment director of RVC, whose words are quoted in the message.

According to analysts, 13 thousand Russian industrial companies need solutions to optimize and improve production efficiency. The domestic market for such products in engineering in the next few years will be estimated at 50-70 billion rubles.

Skolkovo Ventures is an investment platform for managing venture funds, attracting external financing, developing and launching new financial products for fast-growing technology companies on the market, established by the Skolkovo Fund in 2017. The company manages several venture capital funds with a total volume of 5 billion rubles.