The Moscow Startup Summit, held on Oct. 1–2, welcomed startups from around the globe to showcase future technologies. Organized by Sber and the Moscow government, the event featured more than 60 sessions and presentations by over 150 experts from Russia and abroad.
The summit’s agenda covered five key tracks catering to all participants. Main stage sessions explored global tech trends and the impact of generative AI on innovation-driven businesses. Topics included macro-trends and autonomous entrepreneurship, highlighting how generative AI transforms markets, supply chains, and partnership models.
The opening remarks were delivered via a video message by Prime Minister of Russia Mikhail Mishustin, who stressed the significance of collaborating with BRICS and SCO nations to promote tech startups.
Highlights included a panel discussion featuring Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin and CEO and Chairman of the Sberbank Executive Board Herman Gref, stressing the importance of advancing new technologies, creating jobs, and attracting talented professionals by offering a comfortable lifestyle.
Gref said that Moscow now offers distinctive living conditions. These include a comfortable urban environment, an expanded subway system, and overall improvement in transportation infrastructure. Ultimately, these developments create superior living conditions for young people, encouraging them to remain in their home country, while also fostering unique opportunities for startup ventures.
Moscow, noted Sobyanin, possesses all necessary conditions for growing high-tech industrial enterprises. Entrepreneurs and businesses are actively returning to the city due to highly skilled and motivated talent pools unavailable elsewhere.
Creating a welcoming environment and new employment opportunities, Moscow invests heavily in industrial sector upgrades. Priority lies in import-substitution technologies, whose advancement fuels adjacent industries.
Both Gref and Sobyanin concurred that having the right environment is vital for fostering startups. Creating opportunities for work and living encourages young professionals to stay in their home country and pursue pioneering ideas locally.
Gref added that building environments in Russian cities is a social duty and mission of Sber. Employees at Sber take pride in their accomplishments, striving to make each project a benchmark for the nation.
A tech exhibition displayed 60 booths showcasing startups. Forty-one Russian teams joined forces with 19 international startups from Brazil, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Kazakhstan, China, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan, and France.
Another highlight was the Demo Day of the international IT accelerator Sber500. Any angel investor or venture fund representative could declare investment readiness online — either fully funding or partially joining syndicated rounds. Startups received over 1.2 billion Russian rubles ($14.6 million) in investment proposals from angels, VC funds, and investor clubs.
Final presentations were given by 30 startups, including 25 graduates of the main track and five participants from the AI-focused Sber500-GigaChat track. Session moderator Alexander Vedyakhin, Sberbank’s first deputy chairman of the executive board, said that nearly 70 percent of finalists utilized generative AI, with 48 percent classified as deep-tech projects.
Six of the 25 finalists were international, originating from India, Algeria, the UAE, South Korea, and Pakistan, while two teams had co-founders from Denmark and Iran.
Applications for the sixth wave of the accelerator program exceeded 1,900 submissions from 42 countries. Following bootcamp evaluations, 150 startups progressed, resulting in the selection of the top 25 teams. Almost 85 percent worked with AI, and 70 percent leveraged generative AI. Twelve finalists presented deep-tech projects.
Finalists demonstrated solutions spanning biomedicine (33 percent), industrial robotics and tech (15 percent), corporate software (12 percent), fundamental technologies (12 percent), construction and development (7 percent), and cybersecurity (7 percent).
Notable innovations included diagnostic platforms detecting mental disorders via lipidome blood tests, next-generation neuroprocessors turning ordinary gadgets into intelligent systems, and AI-powered photo-to-detailed-3D-model conversion technology. Also shown were 3D printing technologies for buildings of varying heights, IoT sensors with deep AI analytics for industrial machinery, and portable breath trainers paired with personalized AI assistants.
Capping the summit was the presentation of Startup Summit Awards. The award was initiated by the Moscow Government and Sber and is intended to recognize best practices in innovation and encourage large companies and investors to support tech entrepreneurs.. More than 1,700 applications were received from 79 regions of Russia. On Oct. 2, winners were honored across 17 categories, encompassing startups, investors, corporations, universities, and media outlets.
