OREANDA-NEWS. December 06, 2012. i-Free has signed up as a partner for Web Ready ‘2012, an international innovation competition in mobile and Internet technology. The final leg of the competition, the one in which the winners will be chosen, will be held in St. Petersburg on 30 November. 

i-Free and its venture fund, i-Free Ventures, support many competitions designed to encourage startups and teams working on mobile innovation projects and products.   

i-Free has joined this year’s Web Ready ‘2012 as a partner for the Mobile Category, having contributed to the prize fund. And i-Free Ventures will contribute to the work of the VC Corner – a series of meetings between project leaders and potential investors.

“This will be the fourth Web Ready. The competition draws more and more gifted teams and startups every year,” said Anastasia Lazibnaya, who leads the strategic development team at i-Free Ventures and is on the Web Ready jury. “This is a great platform, where developers get to pitch their work to potential investors. More than 20 winners and finalists from the earlier years have secured investment for their projects. We hope this year will bring no dearth of brilliant, promising works, which will also find investors.”  

This year, Web Ready has received 584 applications from 90 cities and 13 countries. The competition has already passed its five regional stages – in Siberia, Volga Region, the Urals, and the South and North of Russia. The national finals will take place in St. Petersburg on 30 November, featuring the 38 projects short-listed by a panel of experts.

The competition is held in two major categories: “Best Internet Startup” and “Best Mobile Startup.” There are also special prizes and additional categories, added by competition partners. The prize fund of Web Ready totals 1.5 million rubles. 

In its 4 years, the competition has seen over 2,000 projects from 17 countries. The finals are typically attended by about 500 participants, some 100 of them representing investment funds. The Web Ready finals usually include a show of semifinalist projects, finalists’ presentations, a “Mentorship Session,” and special guests presentations, as well as the VC Corner – the place where projects meet their investors.

Along with i-Free, the partners of Web Ready ‘2012 are: Microsoft, ОАО RVK, EMC, MegaFon, PwC, ОАО Moscow Exchange, Megaplan, Ingria Technopark Business Incubator, Skolkovo Fund, Innopolis, and BLESK, a European Neighborhood and Partnership Instrument project.