Russia creates a fund for blockchain projects

Russia has created the Digital Economy Projects Fund under the management of the state corporation Rusnano, with a budget of 20 billion rubles.

The fund will operate under the government of the country and provide grants for end-to-end technological projects within the framework of the national program “Digital Economy”.

Priority areas for the distribution of funds include blockchain, wireless technology, 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 until December 18 of this year. Companies will be able to master the funds received for the commercialization and scaling up of projects 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.

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