Russia plans to create an investment fund to support early-stage startups in the field of unmanned technologies. This was announced by Andrey Bezrukov, Chairman of the Board of the Center for Unmanned Systems and Technologies (ANO "CUST").
The fund will focus on dual-use projects with a technological readiness level of TRL 4–7. This means that the developments are in the R&D or ROC stage: there are already working prototypes, but there is no mass production. The fund's volume may amount to several billion rubles.
Investments are planned to be directed to startups working in the field of autonomous systems, artificial intelligence, robotics, power plants, sensor technologies, communication systems and new materials. According to Bezrukov, today pre-seed and seed-level startups are experiencing an acute shortage of capital, and traditional investors lack the technical expertise to evaluate such projects.
The creation of the fund is designed to bridge the gap between the early and late stages of investment. In the future, mature projects will be able to move into the portfolio of higher-level funds, attract external investors or go public through pre-IPO and IPO procedures.
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