Winners of the Internet startups competition Startup Competition will be offered “barter” from Burda International holding

    The Russian division of the publishing house Hubert Burda Media and the Internet Initiatives Development Fund ( IIDF ) are organizing a competition for Internet startups. Burda will give the winners the opportunity to present their project to international experts, provide support, expertise and advertising around the world. For this, the publishing house will allocate 150 thousand euros and invest them in advertising on its resources. Finalists will be able to speak to Burda's top managers, venture capitalists and international consultants.

    Advertising on foreign sites can help startups enter new markets, says the IIDF Director Dmitry Kalayev. At the request of the organizers of the competition, the winner can also receive investments from them. However, no one promises this in advance, representatives of Burda and IIDF emphasize.

    Owners of working products or services (B2B2C or B2C) who have received first income or a significant increase in users are invited to participate in the competition. Startups should work in the Fashion & Beauty, Home & Living, Cooking & Food, Family & Children and Cars segments. Applications will be accepted until September 30, after which the organizer will select the finalists.

    Burda publishes around 320 print publications and manages 114 online resources in 18 countries. In addition, the holding makes investments in startups, including those not related to media. Earlier this year, Burda invested $ 14 million in Coc Coc, a Vietnamese company that develops a search engine, browser, contextual advertising system, and geolocation application.

    Burda also hosted a startup competition last year. Only the budget of the prize advertising company was 500 thousand euros. Three finalists of 2014 received a scholarship to study at LaunchGurus startup academy , mentoring of leading digital specialists at Burda International, and free use of the office and holding infrastructure for two months.

    The winner was the project "7 cottages". "7 cottages" is a Russian-language Internet resource dedicated to the maintenance of the garden, the design of the house and plot, harvesting and other aspects of country life. Burda International received a strategic minority stake in the company in exchange for cash and access to media resources. This investment format is called Media for Equity .

    At the end of 2014, Burda invested in the Russian company Bimbasket , specializing in the development and distribution of children's educational games. Burda said it also received a stake in the project - in exchange for a future advertising campaign.

    The publishing house is ready to invest in 3-5 Russian startups annually. One startup can get from $ 500 thousand to $ 3 million, saidVedomosti Digital Project Director at Burda International Christian Graggaber.

    “In addition to direct investment and advertising, we advise our projects, provide an office and so on. We are ready to bring Russian projects to the international market and use our own tools and capabilities for their development, ”he said.

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