Sberbank is collaborating with Russian venture capital outfit, Internet Initiative Development Fund, on a programme for accelerating intelligent robotics projects.
The bank will house start-up teams from across Russia for up to three months to refine their prototypes in Sberbank’s recently-opened Robotics Laboratory.
While the generic focus covers a mix of possible use cases - such as the creation of personal robot assistants, logistics robots, collaborative industrial robot manipulators, unmanned autonomous transport vehicles, and industrial exoskeletons - the bank says it will run pilot projects with any promising application with potential in financial markets.
The IIDF’s experts will provide the accelerator with consultancy, educational, marketing and legal support as well as contacts within the wider business world.
“Sberbank is one of Russia’s largest tech companies and has a demand for robotic technology,” says Sberbank's deputy chairman Stanislav Kuznetsov. “The launch of a corporate accelerator that concentrates on intelligent robotics will help us find and deploy new projects and tech solutions that will enhance processes at the bank and have a positive impact on the business of clients and partners who are part of our ecosystem. To assist the start-ups, we are ready to provide them with direct access to the resources of our robotics laboratory.”