RVC USA, a two-time sponsor of MassChallenge, has announced that it will again sponsor MassChallenge 2013. This year’s investment by RVC USA highlights the global initiatives of RVC, promoting the growing success of entrepreneurship in Russia, exposing Russian innovators to international opportunities, and building the bridge between the United States and Russia to enable bilateral collaboration and innovation. RVC USA feels that combining the best of both worlds to develop groundbreaking technology solutions will present a critical opportunity for global success between both countries.
“RVC USA continues to help build bridges between the entrepreneurial ecosystems of Russia and Massachusetts. We are proud to further our partnership with RVC USA and make strides in global collaboration to support entrepreneurs worldwide,” said John Harthorne, CEO of MassChallenge Inc.
As with last year’s competition, RVC USA will assist MassChallenge by screening Russian startups in a pre-competition selection round. Throughout the competition, RVC USA will also host regular office hours where the RVC USA team will provide support to all the MassChallenge teams to improve their business plans and presentation skills, and will provide teams selected for the competition with access to top companies inside and outside of Massachusetts for mentorship and advice. During last year’s competition, three Russian teams were selected to compete in the final round of 125 companies. The teams were well-received by industry leaders and investors as their products and services were diverse in nature, focusing on remote blood pressure monitoring, cloud-based book publishing, and automated energy and cost-efficient building routing technology design software (affecting HVAC, electricity, network, and water).
As part of this sponsorship, RVC and RVC USA will pre-determine 3 teams to bypass the first round of judging and advance to the second round of 300+companies. Additionally, RVC will collaborate with both MassChallenge and BIT on Russian Innovation Week, which is scheduled for September 17, 2013 at the Cyclorama in Boston.
“RVC’s experience last year with MassChallenge was overwhelmingly positive. It was an easy decision to continue to sponsor this year’s program. The exposure for both RVC USA and the Russian teams in last year’s competition provided the opportunity for both RVC USA and the Russian teams to interact with many of the most successful venture capitalists, angel investors, universities and business representatives in the Northeast. You simply cannot experience this anywhere else in the world,” said Axel Tillmann, CEO of RVC USA. “The knowledge, business value, and education the Russian teams received through MassChallenge have enabled them to better understand the entrepreneurial ecosystem – how to start their own company, how to showcase their talents, imagination, ingenuity and desire to develop something special which will serve a global purpose as they bring their products to the global market.”
RVC USA expects more Russian competitors this year and believes that this opportunity will enable teams from Russia to succeed in global markets.
As sponsors of MassChallenge, RVC USA has refund codes available to startups. For more information visit www.RVC-USA.com.
Filed Under: Rapid prototyping