GenerationS, a corporate innovation development platform from RVC, has completed its projects scouting for Lenta — the largest hypermarket chain in Russia. The first selection focus was international projects capable of offering competitive, mature solutions for the retail industry in critical areas.
More than 270 applications from international projects were collected in just a month, where 65% are start-ups from Europe, 18% from Israel, 10% from Asia, and 7% from the USA. Also, applications were received from projects in Australia and South America. Among the leading countries in terms of the number of applications are Israel, the UK, Germany, the USA, and Spain.
Forty-five percent of projects have already launched mass production, and 31% have launched their first sales (pilot production).
Among the main areas of start-ups that took part in the selection were automation solutions and improving the efficiency of operations, marketing, logistics, supply chain, and new services for buyers.
As part of the competition, a separate pitch-session was also held involving start-ups from Israel. The start-up teams received answers to their questions from Lenta representatives. They even got a deeper understanding of the Lenta company, the competition, and the main criteria for selecting projects.
The next stage of the competition is the Start-up Demo Day, which is scheduled for mid-December. Start-up teams will be able to present their solutions to Lenta's top managers. The best projects selected at the end of the pitch-session will have the opportunity to launch paid pilots with the company in early 2021.
Start-ups that have successfully passed the Demo Day will receive the necessary business expertise and methodological support for a successful pilot, access to the essential infrastructure and test sites, and consultations on the localization of products and technologies in the Russian market. In case of a successful pilot, the start-up will conclude long-term cooperation with Lenta and other companies of the Severgroup Investment Group.
GenerationS — a Corporate Innovation Development Platform; The largest corporate accelerator in Russia and the CIS. Organized by RVC in 2013. GenerationS implements comprehensive corporate development programs: intracorporate — on the development of internal entrepreneurship; acceleration — for scouting and acceleration of external projects; international — to train employees in the methods of building and conducting innovations based on corporations — global leaders.
Today, the accelerator infrastructure includes 16 thousand start-ups from 30 countries, 400 corporate and ecosystem partners. According to the RBC magazine, in 2017, GenerationS was awarded the largest accelerator's title in Russia. In 2018, it became the best corporate accelerator in Europe, according to the Corporate Startup Summit. GenerationS is also ranked in the Top 5 of the world's best public accelerators, according to UBI Global. In 2020, GenerationS became a member of the INSME Association, an international network for small and medium-sized businesses under the OECD's auspices. In September 2020, GenerationS became the winner in the "Ecosystem Best Practice" category of the ITU competition — the International Telecommunication Union, a UN specialized agency.