Venture funds are an important tool for the development of innovation

A joint meeting of the Club of Director for Science and Innovation (R&Dclub) and Venture Club took place on the eve of the Moscow International Forum of innovative development Open Innovations. The meeting brought together the representatives of leading Russian and international industrial holdings, IT-companies and venture funds.

The partner of the event was OJSC RVC, which traditionally supports the clubs. The topic of the meeting was Harnessing Serendipity. The path to strategic innovations through R&D and venture capital.

As noted by the panelists, many world's high-tech giants started their venture funds becoming an important source of funding for new developments, along with existing R&D divisions. According to the partner of IBM Venture Capital Group Deborah Magee, her foundation is a partner of more than 5K start-ups, the fund has become a bridge between innovative entrepreneurs and IBM company. The company has become more aware of what is happening in the industry, what way the market is moving on due to the interaction with high-tech start-ups.

According to John Bell, the Director of Phillips Research's Strategy and Development, the formation of a separate venture fund based on the parent company with the world famous brand allows venture projects to use finances, experience, connections, and the name of its parent. On the other hand, it allows start-ups remaining independent with own budget and channels to enter the market. Investments in venture capital funds are good when a company intends to enter new markets and engage innovative entrepreneurs.

Recently, the joint participation of market competitors in venture projects has became quite common. In particular, as the director of the Co-Innovation Lab Moscow SAP Research Igor Pak said, the co-sponsors of the global innovation lab SAP are Cisco, Intel, VMware, NetApp. It made it possible to reduce their costs and increase the efficiency of investment in innovations.