This spring, ITMO Accelerator received applications from over 450 teams, 56 of which started working with personal trackers and 19 proceeded to the finals to present their startups at Demo Day. More than 300 projects participated in the program over the course of nine years; after finishing the training, they continue to expand their projects and move on to other accelerator programs.

AI interview assistant

Xenia AI is an AI voice assistant designed to automate the interview process for a variety of jobs, from C# engineers to call center operators. The service acts as an alternative to interview tests and simplifies job interviewing. The assistant does this by inviting candidates for a 10-minute interview, during which it assesses their skills and forwards this information to a potential recruiter, who then has the final say. It asks open-ended questions, meaning that there is no way to cheat or guess the correct answer. Moreover, the algorithm can detect cheating if a candidate tries to look up the answer during their interview. 

Unlike a human, Xenia AI can meet applicants at any time, which broadens the hiring pool as approximately 55% of prospective candidates are interviewed on weekends or after hours.

The startup participated in ITMO Accelerator in the summer of 2024 and thanks to the program started to cooperate with medium and large companies, in addition to small businesses.

The project has recently made it to the finals of the international accelerator Sber500. As a result, its developers resumed work with HeadHunter (a popular Russian job search platform – Ed.) and showcased their assistant to a 10-million audience, which included Russia’s top companies – the target audience of the service. 

“Our service speeds up the recruitment process by 30-50%. It saves recruiters time and money and allows them to respond more quickly and select the best candidates. We’re trying to move ahead with our project: we are constantly collecting feedback from our users and looking for new partners. We’d like to team up with a major corporation and not be in a constant search for funding,” said Nikita Uans, the founder of Xenia AI. 

Long-term storage

NanoScience offers a novel approach to food storage for farmers, retailers, and other participants of the fruit and vegetable supply chain. The solution is bactericidal air purifiers for warehouses that kill bacteria and break down organic compounds into carbon dioxide, water, and oxygen. The developers claim that the system allows for longer storage of fruit and vegetables and kills up to 90% of germs; it has been tested at several retail outlets and warehouses. 

Another solution is ozonizers, i.e. ozone generators. Ozone cleans the air from ethylene, a hydrocarbon that is released by ripened fruit and vegetables and can shorten their shelf life. Among other developments are moisture-absorbing solvents and sachets, as well as protective wax based on animal products for fruit and vegetables.

Thanks to ITMO Accelerator, the team was granted a letter of support from the university and an office they occupy to this day. This fall, NanoScience presented their startup at Sber500, where they promoted their project to potential investors and media. 

The company was founded by Sergey Evstropiev, Dmitry Bulyga, and Yulian Podrukhin.

“We’ve already launched some pilot projects with retailers, and next year, we’ll go for a wider market, particularly the African countries: Burkina Faso, Nigeria, and Mali. We’re also starting to market our air purifiers, ozonizers, and sorbents,” shared Yulian Podrukhin, one of the founders of NanoScience.

Eco-friendly packaging

Unum Tech is the first startup in Russia to produce packaging from plant waste and recycled materials without paper or plastic. It can be recycled and reused as feed for livestock, fertilizer, and biofuel – or decomposed within one to three months. The technology can be used to produce coffee cups, food containers, packaging for eggs and dairy products, as well as measuring spoons for baby and sports foods. 

At its core is a technological know-how – a process of “baking” food packaging in an oven, with food starch as a raw material, which accommodates the processing of fruit cakes and food and agricultural waste.

The accelerator program helped the team figure out their presentation strategy and analyze their target audience. As of now, the developers are consulting experts at ITMO Venture Partners for financing sources. 

Not so long ago, Unum Tech was ranked among the top technological solutions at BRICS Solutions Awards; the project is featured in the category Climate and Environmental Technologies. Consequently, the startup drew interest from experts in Brazil and the Dominican Republic; it was also awarded at RB Young Awards in the category Retail and HoReCa and obtained a cooperation proposal from Х5. 

“Whatever opportunities startups have, I recommend taking part in all sorts of events, accelerators, and competitions. These are an excellent way to promote your product. In the future, we’re planning to advance our technology and break into the international market with not only our packaging, but also clothes and accessories: eyeglass frames, handles for purses, car accessories, and other goods with recycled materials,” noted Pavel Nevskiy, the founder of Unum Tech.