University opens student startup studio

The studio will have office in KFU’s campuses in Kazan and Naberezhnye Chelny.

The opening is part of the Ministry of Science and Higher Educations of Russia initiative for student entrepreneurship; in total., there are 20 partaking universities. KFU startup studio’s co-founders will be PJSC KAMAZ, Investment and Venture Fund of Tatarstan, and Foundation for Educational and Infrastructure Projects.

Alyona Perova, the studio’s director for startup development, notes, “The priority is for the universities comprising our consortium – KFU, Innopolis, Kazan Technical University, and Kazan Power Engineering University. But we are also glad to welcome students from other institutions.”

She emphasized that the the studio is ready to help students give a boost to their ideas, “We have a focus on transport, logistics, and automotive industry, but we are not limited by that. The earlier the concept is, the more help we can provide. If you don’t yet have an idea but are ready to join an existing startup – please apply because we have new job openings almost every day. We regularly hold training session for students who wish to be imbued with the startup spirit.”

However, as Perova notes, the studio is not an investment fund, “The studio takes it upon itself to test a product with customer development, work out a minimum viable product, recruit a team and register a company. We help reinforce the team and add competences to free the creators from unnecessary burden. If such a startup takes off, we will be the first investor, and the team becomes option holders.”

As of now, two projects have been launched. The first tackles mobile charging station for low-mobility electric vehicles. The station is an ISO container with rechargeable elements and integrated devices for automation. The second startup is about car tire service with subscription – the team seeks to provide tire change and storage for a small subscription fee.