World’s first: a wide range of unique technologies selected

[Moscow, Russia] – January 31, 2012 – TexDrive announced the start of its first leading high-tech business acceleration programme in Eastern Europe and CIS to produce global and impactful companies from the best start-ups of the region following such examples as Yandex, IPG Photonics, Mail.ru Group, Skype, Kaspersky Labs and Badoo.

For the first programme, TexDrive has selected seven high potential projects from over 500 applicants. The programme participants cover a wide range of industries including medical, Internet, software, energy and industrial automation. The participants include:

- B-152, SaaS offering for personal data protection targeting small and medium enterprises;

- Teploxxi, provider of high efficiency heating technology based on a breakthrough principle and delivering unique benefits to the users;

- Acnol, supplier of medical gel for treating acne, offering extremely fast results and high efficacy;

- MartMania, Internet platform for trading rare and unique products;

- SystemHeat, novel polymer radiators with extraordinary energy-saving and many other unique properties.

In addition to financial investment, the participants will take part in an intensive programme of business acceleration including working with highly skilled and experienced mentors. They will also have an opportunity to prepare their projects for the next round of investment together with the best venture capital professionals and business angels from Russia, USA and Europe.

Andrey Kessel, Partner of TexDrive “We see a lot of potential in the selected projects and are working with entrepreneurs to deliver a step-change for their businesses. It’s exciting to see our vision of TexDrive being a completely unique offering in the region turning into reality. TexDrive is enjoying a very high level of interest from companies, press and general public alike. It’s not a surprise that we receive many incoming calls with offers to become mentors – where else could you be part of such a distinguished group including a number of self-made billionaires.”

Jon Bradford, Managing Director of Springboard added “I was extremely impressed by the list of participants and thoroughly enjoyed my time in Moscow during the kick-off of TexDrive’s first programme. The atmosphere in the room is highly energised; the participants are excited to be in the early stages of building high-impact world-class businesses. I could have been anywhere in the world!”

TexDrive is the first in Eastern Europe and CIS acceleration programme that is a member of the largest in the world accelerator network TechStars Network (recently renamed Global Accelerator Network). It is run in partnership with Springboard, a well-known European accelerator and is based on the proven mentorship-driven model. The programme boasts as its mentors an impressive list of over 100 known entrepreneurs and venture capitalists from 12 countries, including Russia, Europe and USA, who have built successful Russian and global high-tech companies. This list features, to name just a few, people behind such companies as IBS Group (the largest Russian system integrator), Mail.ru Group (largest mail portal in Russia, IPO on LSE in 2010), Qiwi (a widely spread payments operator service), Headhunter (the №1 CIS Internet recruitment site acquired by DST), Tobii (leader in eye tracking), Forward Internet Group (the company behind uSwitch), Openbravo (the leading open source ERP provider), practitioners from Skolkovo (Russian Silicon Valley) and others.

For further information or to schedule a briefing, please contact: Andrey Kessel, ak@texdrive.com

About TexDrive

TexDrive is a high-tech mentor-led business acceleration programme targeting CIS. TexDrive is the first in Eastern Europe and CIS member of TechStars Network, and is supported by Springboard, both well known acceleration programmes and networks. TexDrive offers a very unique proposition for hi-tech entrepreneurs of the region and boasts as its mentors an impressive list of over 100 known entrepreneurs and venture capitalists from Russia, Europe and USA, who have built successful Russian and global high-tech companies. TexDrive works with wide range of technologies. http://www.texdrive.com/eng

About the TechStars Network

The TechStars Network is a membership organization that ensures the sharing of resources and best practices between independently owned and operated mentorship-driven seed acceleration programs across the globe. Currently, the TechStars Network includes charter members in dozens of cities, including AlphaLab, Pittsburgh, PA; Arizona State University, Scottsdale, AZ; Betaspring, Providence, RI; Blueprint Health, New York, NY; BoomStartup, Salt Lake City, UT; Excelerate Labs, Chicago, IL; Founders Co-op, Seattle, WA; Incubate Miami, Miami, FL; Joyful Frog Digital Incubator; Singapore; Jumpstart Foundry, Nashville, TN; LaunchPad Ignition, New Orleans, LA; Ryan Academy Propeller Seed Accelerator Program, Dublin, Ireland; Springboard, Cambridge, UK; Startupbootcamp, Copenhagen, Denmark and Madrid, Spain; TechStars Boston, MA, New York, NY, Boulder, CO and Seattle, WA; Tech Wildcatters, Dallas, TX; The Brandery, Cincinnati, OH; The Elevator, Tel Aviv, Israel. The TechStars Network is quickly expanding its membership. For more information, visit http://www.techstars.org/network.

About the Springboard

Springboard is one of Europe’s premier acceleration programmes and is based in Cambridge and London. Springboard combines a full time 13 week bootcamp programme with pre-seed equity investment. The programme is funded by NESTA and Angel Investors.