Cisco Commits $1B Multi-Year Investment in Russia

In a meeting in San Jose, CA, President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev and Cisco Chairman and CEO John Chambers discussed collaborative initiatives that will underpin the Russian Federation’s technology innovation agenda. Cisco made a firm commitment to invest $1B U.S. to drive entrepreneurship and sustainable innovation in Russia as a partner in achieving the country’s goals. Cisco has identified a five-phase collaborative approach over this next decade through which this $1B investment will be staged. The five phases will run in parallel.

A focused effort to attract talent, ideas and investment in partnership with the venture capital community forms the basis of the first phase.

As part of its second phase of establishing an innovation and venture platform in the country, Cisco announced a firm commitment to establish a dedicated physical presence in Skolkovo. Cisco aims to establish Skolkovo as the first of a next-generation of Smart+Connected Communities in Russia.

As part of phase three, Cisco is now extending its dedicated Cisco research and development capability in Russia. Along with the Skolkovo infrastructure build out, Senior Vice President Marthin De Beer will establish a second global headquarters for Cisco’s Emerging Technologies Group and will locate key members of its engineering team in Skolkovo.

Phase four will focus on collaboration in the areas of go-to-market models for the creation and success of start-ups in partnership with the Russian venture capital community.  In alignment with this effort, Cisco also announced the third phase of its I-Prize competition, open specifically to entrepreneurial teams in Russia.

In the fifth phase, Cisco will build a model for partnering with existing businesses, venture capital and technology companies in Russia.