Retail Innovation Tech Alliance launches the first selection of startups in Russia

On April 14, Retail Innovation Tech Alliance (RITA), consisting of X5 Retail Group, Beeline, M.Video-Eldorado Group, and Hoff, launches the first selection of startups. GoTech Innovation is the scouting operator in Russia and the CIS.

Thе selection is open for startups at the stage of finished product or MVP, offering solutions focused on improving customer relations, remote support of online sales, increasing efficiency of business processes in offline sales, orders batching and delivery, transportation of goods, as well as solutions in advertising, marketing and financial technologies, home mobile entertainment and automated interior design. The number of applications is not limited.

Based on the selection results, top 15 teams will have the opportunity to finalize their MVPs, test the technology’s performance, launch a pilot with RITA partners and implement their projects for millions of customers in thousands of locations.

The final stage of the selection will be held online on May 14 in a pitch session format. Each team will present their decision to all RITA partners, then there will be a series of meetings of the alliance members with the teams of interest to determine further steps for piloting their solutions. The team that will score more points from RITA partner companies will be invited to participate in the acceleration program of Lafayette Plug & Play, a Paris retail hub.

“The GoTech Innovation team will scout for AI, ML, Big Data, 5G, CloudTech, FinTech, AR/VR, Drones and other selected high-priority technologies in Russia, the Baltic countries, Finland and the CIS. The best startups will present their solutions to RITA partner companies’ top managers at an online pitch session, as well as receive proposals for implementation of joint pilots,” said Irina Kalashnikova, CEO of GoTech Innovation.

To participate, please submit an application online at www.rita.vc before April 30, 2020.