At the RVF-2026 venue (Russia’s Venture Forum), Alexander Smekalin spoke with TASS press center journalist Andrey Zhurankov. Here are the key points from their conversation: On the current state of Russia’s venture market “It’s not as optimistic as many would like to hear, but this is probably a necessary stage. If we go back five years, both the number of deals and the level of risk were higher, and there were more players. Now, unfortunately, the venture market has become quite small. The fact that venture investors are turning to such a broad regional funnel shows that projects are in demand. There is money in the country, and there are tools to implement and support projects at nearly every stage. What we lack are projects. That is why we are now expanding this funnel as much as possible and actively involving the regions.” On the regional funnel and access to financing “When talking with representatives of venture investors, we noticed that most activities are concentrated in the country’s center — in Moscow. Consequently, startups located in Moscow have the primary access to resources. The funnel of regional projects used to be very limited. To make this funnel more relevant for venture companies and more effective for regional startups, together with the Syndicate Club, we created an instrument to improve the preparation and presentation of funding applications.” On launching a training program for venture analysts “We decided to develop a proprietary practice-oriented training program for venture analysts who would be authorized by investors to conduct preliminary project screening. This represents an intermediary stage — a bridge between startup founders and venture financial investors. We aim to train specialists capable of assessing markets and reviewing projects from AIRR regions from multiple angles before presenting them to investors. Surprisingly, there were no such experts before.” On training outcomes and analyst performance “We have trained 25 of these specialists and built a network that connects them. As later practice showed, these analysts effectively evaluate not only projects from their own regions but also from other regions. To date, we have already selected the main projects that are most prepared for financing.” On the first investment committee and prospects for success “Today we’re holding the first in-person committee meeting. Encouragingly, there are more representatives of venture investors than projects. Therefore, we believe the chances of securing funding are quite high. We hope that today this mechanism will help attract investment to regional companies developing at universities and within local innovation infrastructures — allowing them to stay in their regions, secure funding, and move forward with implementation.”