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«Venture Investor» National Award: the choice is made
Meeting of Expert Jury of the «Venture Investor» National Award at which the short list of nominees composed by the results of preliminary vote of the Jury was approved took place on September 23 in Moscow, and the winners of 2014 were defined.
At the meeting which was conducted under the chairmanship of the Assistant to the President of the Russian Federation Andrey Fursenko, the leading experts of the domestic venture capital branch including CEO of JSC RVC Igor Agamirzyan, CEO of the Russian Private Equity Fund Kirill Dmitriyev, President of IBS Group Anatoly Karachinsky, CEO of VTB Capital Asset Management Natalia Plugar, etc. took part.
For the long two hours the spacious hall of the President Hotel turned into a field for hot and fundamental discussions – the acknowledged experts were making the decision: who from the short-list nominees deserved the right to be called not simply "the best", but "the best of the best". The leaders of the Russian venture market were included in the short list: Almaz Capital Partners, BVPEF, BVPEF III, BVPEF IV, Frontier Ventures, Guard Capital, I2BF Global Ventures, InVenture Partners, Runa Capital, Russia Partners, Softline Venture Partners, WEB Innovations, Bioprocess Capital Ventures, "Finam" Investment holding, Innovation Venture Fund of the Republic of Tatarstan, JSC “Yakutia” Venture Company.
The meeting took place behind closed doors, and the names of the Winners will be known later – they will be announced only at the Awards Ceremony; however, according to the judges’ comments at the close of the event, the vote was very difficult.
«I have to tell that decisions on each nomination were given hardly, – said Albina Nikkonen, CEO of the Russian Venture Capital Association, acting as the Secretary of the Expert Jury, – it was a hard, laborious work, we were "fighting" for each candidate, judges actively defended and advanced their positions and decisions, so I can assure that all the winners took their places deservedly. I won't open an intrigue, but I can tell that there were also a number of unexpected decisions. And what the decisions – it can be learned at the Awards Ceremony!»
We will remind that the awards ceremony of the «Venture Investor» National Award winners will take place in Moscow on October 14 within the International Forum «Open Innovations».