SVOD2009 Press Release
Submitted by ileonov on Tue, 12/15/2009 - 09:39
For Immediate Release
PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA, December 11, 2009 – Silicon Valley Open Doors (SVOD), the only Silicon Valley annual investment conference that brings together Russian-speaking innovators with the prominent Silicon Valley venture capital firms, business media and the top US technology companies, successfully concluded on Thursday, December 10 at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California.
In addition to celebrating its Fifth Year Anniversary, SVOD also celebrated its First Year of close cooperation with RUSNANO, a $5B Russian State Venture Capital Fund. “We are glad to have an opportunity to meet with the movers and shakers of the Silicon Valley and to invite them to participate in building the new high-tech industry in Russia,” said Mr. Gozman, Board Member, RUSNANO. “We will continue using SVOD as a platform to dispel some old myths about Russian ways of doing business and tell our partners a new story – that of a reliable and competent friend interested in building long-term relationships.”
Esther Dyson, Founder, EDventure Holdings, who pioneered some of the very first high-tech exchanges between Russian entrepreneurs and the US venture capitalists, was a big part of this year’s SVOD. "The SVOD-2009 conference was a wonderful event,” said Esther. “Networking is very important for start-ups. The challenge for them is often not money: it is mentoring and finding people who can give good advice from experience. That’s why it’s important for RUSNANO to send people back and forth, so they can get more involved in the global start-up community. SVOD can help to attract more experienced advisors, entrepreneurs and investors to Russia, so that Russians and Americans can learn from their foreign counterparts."
"The wonderful thing about entrepreneurs is that their passion for starting new companies transcends languages and geographic boundaries,“ said Ron Conway, Founder and Managing Partner of the Angel Investors LP funds, early stage investor in Google and PayPal. “I felt very comfortable at SVOD and recognized that its participants have the same DNA that made Silicon Valley what it is today."
More than 400 people came to SVOD this year to share their ideas and develop new partnerships. "The progress SVOD has made over the past five years is to a great extent a reflection of the overall progress evident in Russia in the areas of entrepreneurship and venture capital," said Peter Loukianoff, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Almaz Capital Partners. "Even though much needs to be improved before Russia can become a consistently preferred destination for foreign capital, the overall quality of Russian companies and savvy-ness of the entrepreneurs participating at SVOD 2009 is an indication that the Russian start-up market, and the technology sector in general, is moving in the right direction."
During the two-day event more than 60 venture capitalists from such acclaimed firms August Capital, Motorola Ventures, JK&B Capital, Canaan Partners, NorWest Venture Partners, Mohr Davidow Ventures, Morgenthaler Ventures, Battery Ventures, Charles River Ventures, Asset Management Company, Bessemer Venture Partners, Opus Capital, among many others, as well as angel investors, were judging the pre-selected 18 (out of the 80 initially submitted) presentations of the high-tech companies.
PTP Group America, developer of revolutionary recycling technologies, was named the most promising innovative company of the year.
NitrosBase, a developer of a comprehensive framework for database applications, Synesis, high definition network video, and Evature, virtual expert travel agent, were named the first, second and third runners-up, respectively.
In addition, ADCO Engineering, developers of nanocoatings for photovoltaic, semiconductor and other industries, was named by RUSNANO as the most promising nanotechnology startup.
The six keynote speakers made SVOD’s Anniversary not only educational, but also interactive and entertaining: Sergei Beloussov, CEO, Parallels; Steve Blank, serial entrepreneur and Lecturer, Stanford University; Vinod Khosla, Founding Partner, Khosla Ventures; Charles Giancarlo, Managing Director Silver Lake, Guy Kawasaki, Managing Director, Garage Technology Ventures; Pitch Johnson, Founding Partner, Asset Management Company.
SVOD’s 2009 sponsors included RUSNANO, Russian Venture Company, Allianz Rosno Asset Management, Sughrue Mion, Silicon Valley Bank, Grid Dynamics, Epiphan Systems, Femida.us, CRDF, SperaSoft, and The US Russia Center for Entrepreneurship.
"SVOD is a unique organization serving as a communication platform for Russian-speaking technology and business professionals, start-ups and service providers," said Alexei Andreev, Ph.D., Executive Vice President and Managing Director of Harris and Harris. "It is also a successful non-profit startup that has grown meteorically over the course of five years driven by the grass-route participation and a committed management team. Were it not for its non-profit charter, SVOD would have made a very solid portfolio company for most VCs in the Valley!"
SVOD 2009 was hosted by AmBAR.
For additional information about SVOD and AmBAR, please visit the conference website at www.svod.org and www.ambarclub.org.
About SVOD/AmBAR
Silicon Valley Open Doors (SVOD), the only Silicon Valley annual investment conference that brings together Russian-speaking innovators with the prominent Silicon Valley venture capital firms, business media and the top US technology companies. The conference is hosted by the American Business Association of Russian-speaking Professionals (AmBAR), the largest non-profit association of Russian-speaking entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, engineers, lawyers and other business professionals headquartered in Palo Alto, California with over 2,500 members.
Contact Information:
Anna Dvornikova
President, AmBAR
www.ambarclub.org
info@svod.org
tel 650-278-0431
