With support from both the U.S. and Russian presidents, a new high-tech Russian delegation is in Silicon Valley this week forging new international relations and signing huge agreements.
After a meeting between Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and U.S. President Barack Obama, delegates from a new Russian high-tech innovation center are in Silicon Valley to discuss how technology creates economic competition, cultivates the innovative spirit, and, while they're at it, sign a $1 billion deal.
In a meeting yesterday, the delegates, all members of the Skolkovo Foundation, signed a memorandum of understanding with Cisco for $1 billion to create a physical research and development presence in Skolkovo, and a $20 million agreement with Bessemer Venture Partners to invest in Skolkovo companies over the next two years.
The signing is part of a week-long trip kicked off on Monday with the inaugural meeting of the so-called U.S.-Russian Bilateral Presidential Commission Working Group on Innovation, or for short, the Working Group on Innovation. Group discussions at the event focused on closer collaboration in cutting-edge research and development activities, the commercialization of such activities, and the challenges of creating successful innovation centers such as Skolkovo, which is near Moscow.
"I am confident that our trip to Silicon Valley and the first meeting of the Working Group on Innovation will open a new chapter in the history of economic ties between Russia and the United States,” said Viktor Vekselberg, president of the Skolkovo Foundation. “I also hope that our active cooperation to drive innovation in both of our countries will set the standard for Russian-American business collaboration as we move further into the 21st century."
Currently, the delegates are attending the Global Technology Symposium in Menlo Park, California, to meet with venture capitalists and other entrepreneurs in emerging markets.
The Skolkovo Project, a science and technology city in the Moscow suburb of Skolkovo, is the site of an MIT-like university where Russian and international companies have signed up to engage in research programs, intellectual property is promoted, and an array of venture capital firms from Russia and abroad are being courted to provide the investment capital for those next-generation ideas. The project capitalizes on Russian talent with the goal of empowering the country's venture capital infrastructure.
The week of activities marks in important partnership between what is often referred to as the Russian Silicon Valley and, well, Silicon Valley.
Source: portfolio.com