IPOboard summarizes the first year of operation

A meeting of the market participants took place on April 12, 2013 at the Moscow Stock Exchange. The meeting was dedicated to the performance of the IPOboard project, which is Russia's first electronic information and trading platform for private innovative companies to attract investments. IPOboard system has been created with the support of the Market for Innovations and Investments (MII) of the Moscow Stock Exchange; it is implemented in close cooperation with Rusnano, RVC and other development institutions. To date, IPOboard system includes 142 registered companies, 223 investors, and 19 accredited consultants. Two companies conducted the IPO on IIM at the end of 2012, 11 companies joined Skolkovo, 7 companies received investment from RVC Seed Fund.

Anatoly Chubais, the CEO and the Board Chairman of RUSNANO, Alexander Afanasiev, the Chairman of the Moscow Stock Exchange, and Igor Agamirzyan, the CEO and Board Chairman of RVC, JSC opened the event and welcomed its participants. Gennady Margolit, MII CEO, said that IPOboard performs important functions in preparing companies to operate in public environment and there is every reason to expect an inflow of high-quality innovative companies to the Moscow stock exchange in the near future, and this is exactly what MII is focused on.

An important part of the event was the announcement of Infrafund RVC’s entering the capital of IPOboard. The CEO and Board Chairman of RVC, JSC Igor Agamirzyan says: IPOboard is an important project for us, which is required as an element of the tech investment infrastructure. Infrafund RVC’s acquisition of shares in IPOboard is a logical step, since main objective of the fund is exactly the development of the market of specialized services required for tech companies to manage their core business and accelerate the development. IPOboard’s results achieved over one year of operation show that the platform is interesting to young companies and investors, that it offers most of the necessary tools and has great potential.



Artur Isaev, the HSCI CEO and the Board member of IPOboard, told in his speech about the project and its success achieved for the year of work. He said that IPOboard’s operation has become an important element of the Russian investment and innovation infrastructure, which facilitates the interaction of tech and capital markets. IPOboard involves all participants of the innovation market: companies and projects, private and institutional investors, consultants and experts whose work contributes to the development and promotion of innovative companies. In addition, the participants of the event welcomed the new project manager - Dmitry Bulavin, who became the CEO of IPOboard in late March.

IPOboard resident companies operate in all major sectors of the new economy: Internet technologies, energy, biotechnologies, clean technologies and materials, nanosystems, space technologies, etc. The system offers companies a wide range of services that include different ways to present their projects to investors, organization and support of transactions, including the IPO.

The partners of IPOboard are RVC JSC, the Skolkovo Fund, Department of Science, Industrial Policy and Entrepreneurship of Moscow, Center for Innovative Development, RVCA, Moscow Seed Fund, Zvorykin project, a number of business incubators, accelerators and technology parks in Moscow and other regions of Russia.

The representatives of IPOboard’s partners and independent experts assessed the work of the platform during the meeting: Alexey Komissarov - the Head of the Department of Science, Industrial Policy and Entrepreneurship of Moscow, Albina Nikkonen – RVCA CEO, Edward Kanalosh - Investment Director of Skolkovo, Alexey Kostrov – the CEO of Moscow Fund for venture investments, Andrei Morozov – the Board Chairman of VEB-Innovations, and Vladimir Andrienko, the Managing Director of Russia Partners. All of them noted the importance and relevance of the project for the development of the Russian venture market.

The event also announced development plans of the project aimed at increasing the availability of venture and private capital for promising Russian companies. The system plans to increase the number of its resident companies to 300 in 2013.

According to the CEO of IPOboard Dmitry Bulavin, the platform is ready to provide young innovative companies with equal opportunities to raise capital, and assist them in entering the public capital market in close cooperation with the MII of Moscow Stock Exchange.