American Business Association of Russian Professionals

PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Silicon Valley Open Doors (SVOD), the only Silicon Valley annual investment conference that brings together innovators from the former Soviet Union (FSU) countries with prominent Silicon Valley venture capital firms, leading technology and business media and top US technology companies, successfully concluded on Friday, November 9^th. The conference was hosted by the American Business Association of Russian Professionals (AmBAR), the largest non-profit business association of entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, engineers, lawyers and other Russian-speaking professionals headquartered in Palo Alto, California.

“The CIS technology market is poised for tremendous growth as the region’s well established technology expertise is complemented by a growing venture capital industry, strong economic growth, and an exciting new class of entrepreneurs. SVOD did a wonderful job bringing together the key players in an exciting emerging story,” said Will Price, Managing Director, Hummer Winblad Venture Partners.

During the two-day conference more than 45 venture capitalists from such acclaimed firms as Alloy Ventures, Asset Management Company, ComVentures, Woodside Capital Partners, Vivo Ventures, Pitango Venture Capital, Opus Capital, Institutional Venture Partners, New Enterprise Associates, Generation Origin, Charles River Venture, and Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, as well as the angel investors were judging the presentations of the pre-selected 16 high-tech companies. The Panel of Judges named VirtuSphere, a novel virtual environment platform for military simulated training, fitness and entertainment industries, as the most promising innovative company of the year. Meshnetics, a developer of easy-to-integrate high performance ZigBee modules and software for wireless connectivity for various products and solutions, and 4HomeMedia, a creator of a robust integrated software solution for home control and health, energy, and media management, were named the first and second runners-up respectively.

"I very much enjoyed the quality of the presentations by being a judge. It is clear to me that AmBAR and SVOD is building a community around the best Russian entrepreneurs," said George Zachary, Partner at Charles River Ventures and the Chairman of the Panel of Judges.

The SVOD 2007 program also featured seminars and panel discussions by industry experts in information technology, biotech, security, business services, formation of high-tech ventures, IP protection, and raising venture capital. Although SVOD’s primary intent remains bringing together entrepreneurs of FSU origin with the potential investors, this year’s program has been expanded to include sessions on marketing, brand value, talent management and recruiting challenges in a startup environment. A special panel was dedicated to angel investment as the growing angel community in the FSU countries expressed a vast interest in their best practices. "It was a pleasure to participate in the Silicon Valley Open Doors event this year, and hope that conference attendees found the Angel Investing panel that Peter Redford, Aydin Senkut, Jeff Yu, Steve Stephansen, Randy Williams and I presented enjoyable and informative. Activity from innovators in the FSU has certainly increased, and it was great to meet so many entrepreneurs looking to expand globally,” said Richard Brenner, Founder and CEO, The Brenner Group, Inc. and President-Elect of the Churchill Club.

Our speakers came from such marquee companies and institutions like eBAY, HP, Microsoft, Charles River Ventures, Alloy Ventures, Asset Management, Hummer Winblad, Mayfield, NEA, Vivo Ventures, Woodside Capital Partners, Bay Partners, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Blue Run Ventures, Carnegie Mellon, Stanford University, The Churchill Club, DLA Piper, Band of Angels, Sand Hill Angels, and Forbes.

Russian Venture Company (RVC), whose charter is to foster technology entrepreneurship in the country, announced at SVOD a significant expansion of the program from US$600 million to more than US$1.25 billion. “There is enough venture capital money on the Russian start-up market,” said Yan Ryazantsev, RVC Investment Director. “We are looking for talents to boost the innovation of economy and let Russia break into the global high-tech market.” The fact that the Russian Government has selected SVOD as the primary venue for announcing the expanded capabilities of RVC is a testimony to what this conference has become – the single most anticipated occasion for the Eastern European investment community.

“This year, instead of Silicon Valley Open Doors, we felt like we have opened Silicon Valley flood gates! Not only had we a record attendance with a total of more than 360 participants, the spirit and the enthusiasm of the event was simply contagious,” said Vera Shokina, AmBAR President and VP at Silicon Valley Bank. “The conference has been an unparallel success – we are overwhelmed with the dozens of thank you emails.”

For additional information about SVOD please visit the conference website at www.svod.org.

AmBAR

AmBAR is a non-profit business association of entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, engineers, lawyers and other professionals with headquarters in Silicon Valley. Started as an organization of expatriates from Russia, Ukraine and other former Soviet Union countries that were involved in technology businesses in the United States, AmBAR has grown into a large network in which innovators and entrepreneurs of all origin can exchange ideas and business contacts. Today AmBAR membership base consists of more than 2,000 business professionals.

AmBAR creates a unique platform to facilitate the exchange of knowledge, ideas, and business contacts between technology entrepreneurs, professionals, and investors. The organization is also dedicated to accelerating access to capital for innovative projects and developing technology partnerships between Russia, Ukraine and other FSU countries and the United States. Through various seminars and conferences AmBAR provides educational programs that help entrepreneurs refine their business plans, and advance their product development and marketing efforts.