Technology Companies Support and Development Union (STK)

2022: Creating an organization

At the end of August, the non-profit organization Union for the Support and Development of Technology Companies (STK) began work. It was formed on August 24, 2022. It was established by Ilya Nazarov, IT entrepreneur, general director of Digital Markets, and Evgenia Dmitriyeva, a legal expert in the field of intellectual property and corporate law in a number of IT companies, who previously headed the relevant department in international consulting. Evgenia Dmitriyeva was appointed president of the new organization.

The Union for the Support and Development of Technology Companies was created to promote the interests of Russian IT companies in the SMB segment. The presentation of the organization, which was reviewed by TAdviser, states that it deals with the following issues:

• A single center for collecting initiatives from IT organizations, analyzing the measures being implemented to support the state, participating in advisory and expert councils that develop decisions within the framework of the digital agenda;
• An open community to organize the development and implementation of IT products;
• Development of solutions demanded by the market and the state and their promotion with the support of NGOs;
• A single "consulting window" on measures to support the state, routing to development institutions, venture funds and other organizations to receive external funding;
• Competent legal assistance in the organization of technical training and submission of applications for government support measures, as well as support for the formation of reports on projects to concentrate the team on their implementation.

Currently, there is no institutionalized association in Russia that combines the interests, goals, values ​ ​ of the state, business, the banking sector and domestic IT companies that successfully operate in the middle market segment. It is these companies that are able to develop iconic IT products and are the target group of measures to support the IT industry, "Ilya Nazarov explained to TAdviser.

"Union of Support and Development of Technology Companies" is intended for small organizations of the industry "(photo - MAGO/NurPhot)"

The founders of STK conducted a study, according to the results of which it turned out that in Russia there are about 18.5 thousand accredited domestic IT companies that successfully operate in the middle business segment. These are no longer startups, but also not yet large market players. All of them are an integral part of the digital economy, Nazarov says. A typical "portrait" of such an IT company: it is registered in the form of an LLC, there are 5-6 employees in the state, there is a flagship product or a set of IT services, the average annual revenue is about 34 million rubles.

For startups, there is an Association to promote the development of innovative financial and technological projects, IIDF, Skolkovo clusters, projects of the Moscow Department of Entrepreneurship. Through them, young IT companies receive support and the opportunity to test the concept, make a breakthrough in development, as well as a platform for communication and interaction. However, the above organizations are not public.

Such associations as ARPP, APKIT, RUSSOFT, RAEK were created by IT giants and are focused on the priorities of the relevant segment, Ilya Nazarov notes. Often, such associations are concentrated primarily on defending their own interests, expanding their business, and are focused on the implementation of large-scale and image projects by their subsidiaries.

Before STK, there was no non-profit association of domestic IT companies that successfully operate in the middle market segment. The interests of these companies were not properly represented, - said the co-founder of STK.

The initiatives of such companies, as a rule, are brought to the bodies of state power and management through spontaneously created chats in Telegram and other informal channels. Ilya Nazarov and Evgenia Dmitriyeva themselves are the founders of the Telegram group "STK|RFRIT for IT" (ITgrants), which has about 1 thousand participants, mainly heads of IT companies.

Nazarov notes that the idea of ​ ​ creating a STK, in fact, originated in this community, and the founders, with the support of the community, combined initiatives and consolidated the intentions of IT entrepreneurs, forming a specialized non-profit organization.

He also told TAdviser that in addition to him and Evgenia Dmitriyeva founders of STK are Sergey Kravtsov, owner of the OMMG developer and member of the board of directors of NTC IT Rosa, and Denis Loza, business development expert, executive director of Digital Markets. Ksenia Amosova, deputy general director of Datana, was also invited to the board.

And the organization invited the Minister of Digital Development Maksut Shadayev, General Director of RFRITAlexander Pavlov, Head of the Department of Entrepreneurship and Innovative Development of Moscow Alexei Fursin and other key representatives of the industry to the Supervisory Board. Maksut Shadayev, in particular, drew attention to the Telegram community "STK|RFRIT for IT" in August and promptly wrote messages to its participants after a technical error occurred on the public services portal, due to which some IT companies received letters revoking their accreditation.

It will be possible to join the union upon application after the moderation of the company by members of the board. Forms are planned to be prepared in the first week of the organization.