Russian Railways Teams up with RVC to Launch Venture Funds

Russia’s state-run fund dedicated to innovation, RVC, and Russian Railways (RZD) have teamed up to launch to two venture funds for industrial and digital investments, reports East-West Digital News reports.

Scheduled for launch in 2021, the funds will support early-stage projects, which have “the potential of developing synergies with the railway company and increasing its business efficiency.”

The first fund will target a wide array of transportation technologies, including tech equipment, new materials, robotics, 3D printing, additive technologies, quantum communications, and green tech.

The second one will focus on the digitalization of the transportation industry. This may include such projects as IT solutions for freight or passenger transportation, internet of things (IoT), Big Data, business analytics and forecast, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, and machine learning.

RVC and RZD expect industrial and financial partners to invest in these funds, the size of which has not been announced.

Earlier this year RZD Technologies, a digital transformation project office of RZD, and RT Invest, a subsidiary of state-run defense conglomerate Rostec, announced plans to create a joint venture and a venture fund to support IT projects on transport. Among the pilots to be supported by the fund might be projects related to cross-border cargo shipments between Russia and China.