Sergei Arkhipov, deputy general director of United Heavy Machinery (OMZ), commented on the benefits of cooperation with the Skolkovo Foundation.

The first event in the Russian StartUp Tour was held March 1 in Yekaterinburg, where the tour coincided with OMZ’s Technostart: Ural competition (February 25 - March 1). Engineering holding OMZ has a big stake in Yekaterinburg - the giant factory of factories, Uralmash. It produces high-technology products demanded by the power, steel, transportation, and other industries.

In a telephone interview with Sergei Arkhipov, he stressed that the main purpose of OMZ’s cooperation with the Skolkovo Foundation and the Russian StartUp Tour is to get an effective tool to help machine builders interact with the startup community:

For us interaction with startups is not a core activity. It’s quite difficult to build an information exchange with the innovative start-up community, and we see the Skolkovo Foundation primarily as a partner in such communication. We would like to take the path of residency in Skolkovo together (with the projects that interest OMZ), so that on the way the foundation can help innovators and us with business connections and training, so that after a certain time we would get a stronger teamSergei Arkhipov, director of innovation at OMZ

OMZ, the largest international holding company in the field of heavy industry, has several subsidiaries, including engineering companies in Yekaterinburg ("Uralmash"), St. Petersburg ("Izhora Works") and the Czech Republic (Skoda JS).