A new accelerator: Orange Fab

French Tech Moscow had an interview with Orange Fab that had opened in last October in Moscow. Vitaly Shtyrkin, Head of Investments and Innovations in Orange Business Services Russia and CIS, opened to us some facts about this adventure.

Orange Fab Russia is a member of global network of startup accelerators in 17 countries and a part of international telco operator and digital service provider Orange Group with HQ in France. Orange Fab in Russia is managed by B2B division of Orange — Orange Business Services.

Orange Fab is has been around for more than 6 years and worked succesfullt with many successful startups like Makigami (process automation system for all business verticals) and Communithings (Smartcity solution for Smartparking) to name a few

Some facts about Vitaly Shtrykin: he joined Orange Business Services in 2014 as the Head of Business-Transformation and ran this function until 2019. Vitaly has 15-years’ experience in product development and business transformation in large and small IT- companies in Russia and abroad. He graduated from Moscow Technological University of Telecommunications and Informatics with a a Ph.D degree. He also has received an MBA degree at International School of Business of Financial University. Since 2019 Vitaly is operating as the Head of Investments and Innovations at OBS Russia and CIS. Among his fields of activity there are: cooperation with the main actors of innovation in Russia, analysis of investment opportunities in Russia, implementation of the Open Innovation principles for development of the OBS Russia.

Vitaly, why did Orange decide to open the Orange Fab in Russia? Could you tell us more about your cooperation with X5 Retail Group?

The decision to open up the Orange Fab Russia naturally comes from our understanding of the demand for innovations in Russia. We see many corporations in Russia willing to innovate. At the same time we see a great number of promising tech startups here. So the Orange Fab is here to help them to work together.

Orange Fab runs customer specific programs with startups aiming to find relevant tech startups and prepare implementation in to processes of a corporation.

With X5 Retail Group we have launched the first Orange Fab Russia acceleration program. In this program we are looking for tech startups within specific retail business topics with whom we will work together with X5 Retail Group to prepare pilot implementation. The goal of the program is to help startups to enter the market of solutions for large corporations and the same time, support of customers on their innovation journey. Together with X5 Retail Group we have our working group that works through the startup applications.

At what stage are you now in this acceleration program?

We launched the program in December 2019 and we have been receiving startup applications all the way until and of February 2020. Now are to select the startups with whom we will work together during 3-month acceleration phase.

It is too early to announce any results but generally speaking, we’re satisfied how the process works, quality of applications, etc.

Do you cooperate with any accelerators or technoparks?

In 2019 OBS Russia became partner of Skolkovo Foundation. That means we became a member of Skolkovo innovations ecosystem. Soon we will be opening an office in Skolkovo to host our Orange Fab and Customer Innovations Center. At some point we might also be launching joint program for startups.

We are open to cooperation with all actors of innovations ecosystem in Russia, and are happy to speak with all interested parties.

What future development of Orange Fab do you see in Russia?

We’re are preparing new ‘Call for Projects’ programs for startups with corporations in different industries. Also Orange Fab is a global network so we are working on extending cooperation within the network to help startups enter global markets.

It is also worth mentioning that Orange Group operates a number of innovations development tools, one of which is a corporate venture fund. So, Orange Fab Russia can suggest promising Russian startups, which are looking for investments to be reviewed by the fund. We also want to attract experts from Orange Group to contribute to Orange Fab Russia and to speak with Russian startups, etc…

Vitaly, do you know about French Tech Moscow?

Yes, I was invited to some events of French Tech Moscow and look forward to our further cooperation.

Here’s the link to apply for the accelerator: https://orangefab.ru/call-for-projects-x5/