OREANDA-NEWS. December 16, 2010. At the Moscow School of Management SKOLKOVO, Troika Dialog hosted the venture section "Tecnovations Cup," where the competition's best startups were presented to venture and investment funds. Participants in the Cup jury included executives from Troika Dialog, Leader AM, and the investment funds Russia Partners and Almaz Capital Partners. At the section, investors were introduced to promising high-tech projects campaigning for venture financing, while project developers were rewarded with valuable advice on future growth and contacts with investors and partners.

According to Yury Boyko, Venture Capital Investments Manager at Troika Dialog, "Business owners seeking investments for startups deserve the opportunity to present their company and draw attention to several fundamental elements: the market, product, project team, competitors and the project's unique advantages."

During the section, leading Russian universities and scientific-research institutes presented eight projects in total, with first-place recognition going to the project "Mobile DNA diagnosis," to which Troika Dialog awarded a monetary prize totaling 100 thousand rubles. The project is based on technology capable of performing mobile DNA analysis faster and cheaper than other models currently available on the market. The project is currently in the R&D phase. With existing investments of USD 400 thousand, the product developers hope to enter the Russian market in 2012. The jury also recognized the project "Outdoors laser advertising," developing and manufacturing laser projectors working by unique acoustic-optical principles. The project's business model is to provide a service for creating and servicing advertising spaces illuminated by a projector.

Commenting on the event and the awarding of winners, Andrei Vakulenko, Venture Capital Director at Troika Dialog, urged the projects to become more ambitious and the teams to take a more global view on markets and prospects for their products and innovations.