Startup project founders in Russia are more likely to be men, on average 36 years old, who have received higher education and have already launched their own business before. This data follows from the results of the Startup Barometer 2021 study of the startup market in Russia, in which 630 entrepreneurs took part.

"Although there is a stereotype that startups are the projects of young people and yesterday's students, in fact, people who start their companies in Russia are still more mature - from 26 to 45 years old. The share of founders aged 18-25 is only 7%. Most of the startup founders are from Moscow (41%), 9% are from St. Petersburg, and the rest of the percentages are distributed among other Russian cities," the presentation says.

Thus, among other Russian cities in which residents most often decide to launch new projects are Kazan, Ekaterinburg, Perm, Novosibirsk, Krasnodar, Voronezh, Nizhny Novgorod, Togliatti and others. Most of those who decide to start a startup are still men. There are very few women among startup founders - 16%. This figure changes from year to year, but literally by 1-2%.

Almost all startup founders (87%) have higher education, a quarter of respondents have two or more higher educations, and another 11% have a degree. In addition, many of them already had experience in starting and running a business: 34% of respondents were engaged in their own business before founding their current project, 29% are employees of corporations, and 19% come from small companies.

At the same time, 66% of respondents combine their work in a startup with other activities: 30% continue to work for hire, 14% have another business, and 9% develop several startups at once. For 64% of respondents the startup is not the main source of income.

As for niches popular for development of new projects, according to the survey, EdTech (development of educational digital services - ed.) is in the lead, FinTech (financial technologies - ed.) is in the second place, and Ecommerce is in the third place.

"Noticeably more projects have appeared in the HRTech sphere. Last year, startups did not highlight this niche. Robotics projects and startups in the energy sector have risen in the ranking, and more startups for manufacturing in industry have also appeared," the study's authors state.

Made in Russia // Made in Russia

Karina Kamalova