Kazan University Startup Studio named best in the nation in 1H2024

The university startup studio founded by Kazan Federal University, KAMAZ, the Investment and Venture Fund of the Republic of Tatarstan, and the Fund for Infrastructural and Educational Programs, has received praise.

The ranking is published by the Fund for Infrastructural and Educational Programs.

While last year the evaluation of startup studios took into account such criteria as the number of startups, their development, and the cleanliness of the startup studio model, this year new criteria were added, related to the development of startups, attracting funding from external investors, and revenue.

The network of university startup studios was organized in our country in 2022 and became one of the instruments of the federal project Platform of University Technological Entrepreneurship of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of Russia. The goal of the studios is the serial launch of businesses based on the latest scientific developments, as well as the introduction of the model of student technological entrepreneurship in universities.

Dmitry Pashin, Vice-Rector for Digital Transformation and Innovation, believes that there is nothing surprising in the fact that the University Startup Studio is recognized as the best in the country: KFU has been actively engaged in the development of student technological entrepreneurship for almost 6 years.

“At the Studio more than 30 percent of projects are those by students of Kazan University,” he noted. “I know for sure that if projects have passed all stages of selection to the startup studio, they are really noteworthy. And the market will show which of them is the best.”

He noted that the work to create an ecosystem and culture of technological entrepreneurship in KFU began in 2018. It was then that the course Innovative Economics and Technological Entrepreneurship was introduced into the curricula of the university.

“Recently, the fifth wave of the Student Startup competition was completed, for which KFU representatives submitted more than 500 applications. 111 business projects became winners.”reminded the Vice-Rector.

According to Dmitry Pashin, Tatarstan is the only province of the Russian Federation where a comprehensive support network for student technological entrepreneurship has been constructed.