Russia creates a fund for blockchain projects

Russia has created a Fund for Digital Economy Projects managed by the state corporation Rusnano, with a budget of 20 billionrubles.

The fund will operate under the government of the country and allocate grants for end-to-end technology projects within the framework of the national Digital Economy program.

Priority areas for the distribution of funds include blockchain, wireless communication technologies, AR and VR, virtual and augmented reality and artificial intelligence. 

At the same time, project grants will range from 15 million to 1 billion rubles. The size of the grant will depend on the total cost of the project. The company must finance at least 50% of its project.

The fund plans to support about eightypromising projects for budgetary billions. In total, in 2019 it is planned to distribute 3.1 billion rubles on a competitive basis. The list of potential recipients of this year's grant includes 73 small and medium-sized companies. This is not about startups, but about projects ready for implementation in high-tech fields.

The decision on their financing will be made before December 18 of this year. Companies will be able to use the funds received for commercialization and scaling of projects already in the second quarter of 2020.

Recall that recently the government of Ukraineallocated about 440 million hryvnias ($ 18.36 million) for the development of innovative startups in the areas of blockchain, cybersecurity, augmented reality and artificial intelligence.