IPOBOARD takes startups on board
Startups master the exchange
Elena Timokhina, UNOVA
Within the framework of the MICEX innovation and investment market, an information board for startups has started working in a test mode. On the IPOBOARD, companies will be able to put up stakes of 5-10% and attract up to $ 2-3 million.
The information board will be an open Internet resource for making deals between startups and investors. Now the project is at the stage of detailed elaboration of the functionality and acceptance of the first participants (there are already 15 of them on the resource).
The main task of the board, according to the curator of IPOBOARD Svyatoslav Sedov, will be to increase the information openness of companies in the venture market, so that the presence of a website, as well as the publication of materials about the company's activities is mandatory. In order to bargain on the board, several conditions must be met: be a company no older than 3-4 years and have a capitalization of no more than $ 20 million. It is also advisable to provide an annual audited annual and quarterly financial report, a semi-annual business plan, a semi-annual report on the implementation of the business plan and a brief 2-month report on the achievement of the main indicators of the business plan as a percentage. It is not necessary to provide all these securities, however, their presence will significantly increase the rating of the traded company. The amount of attracted capital can range from $50 thousand to $2-3 million.
The Working Group has not yet decided whether it is necessary to evaluate project teams and how to determine the minimum share for placement on the board. Eduard Fiaksel, director of the Start-up Investments business angel network and a member of the board working group, believes that the evaluation of the team is necessary: "We need to make sure that there are people with entrepreneurial experience in the team, otherwise, no matter how brilliant the idea is, it is doomed to failure."
As for the share, according to the preliminary ideas of the working group, the company should put up for free sale at least 5%. However, many investors are already talking about the need to increase this figure. "I think the share should be at least 10%," says Vladimir Andrienko, Managing Director of Russia Partners.
According to Svyatoslav Sedov, the launch of the project will take place in the near future: "While some of the functionality does not work on the site, but not because we do not know how to do it, but because practical testing of some options is necessary. We are ready for the fact that all the bumps will fall on us first, but in the end, I hope, we will be able to create a really working resource."
According to the estimates of the working group, 10 participants - entrepreneurs, investors and experts - are enough to make the board work. However, according to Sedov, the ideal figure will be 500 registered participants. Already, the resource provides certain options for messaging, discussion and correspondence between investors and startups.
At the same time, expectations for companies are much more modest. Optimal, according to Sedov, will be 3-4 companies that are actually traded on the board in the near future and about 10 companies that annually pass through the board.
However, the potential of the board is much greater. So, in Poland, about 200 companies miss such a resource in a year. The organizers of the board quite reasonably want to repeat these indicators. Moreover, there are more than enough resources to attract high-quality startups to the board: there are preliminary agreements with RVC, the Fund for the Promotion of small forms of enterprises in the scientific and technical sphere, Rusnano, and some large companies.
In the coming month, the project managers plan to take on board the first company.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru10.03.2011