Russia to Establish 150 Million Ruble Venture Fund for AI Solutions in Healthcare

The fund is expected to specialize in pre-seed and seed rounds of investment and support projects with a product mockup, prototype, minimum viable product, or projects with a product at launch. It will support up to ten of the most promising projects annually.

Projects for investment will be selected on a competitive basis; applications can be submitted through a special form on the fund's official website. They must contain information about the team, product, market, and plan for using the funds.

The fund will provide the winners with financing in the form of convertible loans without collateral. At the first stage, the fund's volume will be 150 million rubles, and subsequently, Artgen Biotech plans to increase the volume of funds annually, including by attracting investors.

In February 2024, a program of university venture funds was launched in Russia. Funds for supporting student startups specialize in providing investments for the implementation of risky and innovative projects. The total cost of funds on a national scale is estimated at 3.5 billion rubles.

The areas covered by the support measure include medicine, biotechnology, artificial intelligence, robotics and others. The funds are financed under the federal project "University Technological Entrepreneurship Platform" implemented by the Ministry of Education and Science, and the direct implementation is carried out by the Fund for Infrastructure and Educational Programs.