A Russian startup won $1 million in a European competition, but then the organizers abruptly changed their minds and did not give him the money

The Immigram platform, created to relocate IT professionals abroad, won the Slush 100 competition. However, after the results were announced, something went wrong and the project never received the award, reports MC.today.

Photo: IStock

slush is a non-profit student movement dedicated to helping a new generation of innovative entrepreneurs. A movement started in Finland to change attitudes towards entrepreneurship. In 2022, on November 17-18, a conference was held in Helsinki.

A start-up founded no earlier than 2019, which has already managed to attract at least 500 investments, can apply to participate in the competition.

On the eve of the conference, the Slush jury selects twenty of the best startups from the applications submitted by those who wish, and the winner is announced on the day of the event. The main prize is a $1 million investment from Accel, General Catalyst, Lightspeed Venture Partners, NEA and Northzone.

What happened

On November XNUMX, the organizers announced that the winner of the competition was a project based in Great Britain, but its founders, Anastasia Mirolyubova and Mikhail Sharonov, came from Russia.

The company is engaged in helping IT-specialists with obtaining a British visa for citizens of different countries, but mainly the company's clients are Russians.

After the victory, Mirolyubova announced that the startup would donate $100 to Ukrainian public organizations.
But that didn't save Immigram.

?Slush 100 winner is Immigram?

Congratulations to Immigram, an immigration platform for IT specialists and tech entrepreneurs, for winning the €1M investment from @Accel, @generalcatalyst, @lightspeedvp, @NEAand @northzoneVC.#slush2022 pic.twitter.com/Yjjr690Vm4

— Slush (@SlushHQ) November 18, 2022

Note that the Ukrainian startup Zeely also made it to the top three. Zeely is a platform for starting online sales for small businesses. This application allows users to launch web stores and send promos on Facebook, Instagram, Google and TikTok in just a few minutes using artificial intelligence.

Criticism in Ukraine and not only

After Immigram was announced as the winners, the news was greeted with astonishment by the international community.

For example, PR and Media Manager at MacPaw, Yulia Petrik, wrote: “The startup that won the top prize (€1 million) in the startup competition is helping Russians get out of their country from responsibility and sanctions. This literally happens when the Ukrainian founders are left without electricity in the country because Russia attacked critical infrastructure, working from bomb shelters because only a few days ago Russia dropped 100 rockets and bury close friends and relatives who voluntarily joined the army to protect their homeland. from the aggressor.

But not only Ukrainians were dissatisfied. In particular, Finnish MP Mikko Karna also criticized the startup's victory.

“What the hell, Slush? This makes more sense than sticking your hand into a wood chipper. So you went and gave a million euros to a Russian company that helps Russians escape sanctions! Aren’t you ashamed, Erika Savolainen (CEO of Slush)?” he wrote.

After the victory and the wave of criticism that began in social networks, Mirolyubova wrote that she fully supported Ukraine. Moreover, according to her, the family of the co-founder of the startup, Mikhail Sharonov, is from Odessa by origin. But they have "red passports".

“Yesterday they started threatening me and wishing me death because I won a startup competition with the wrong color of my passport. This is very wrong,” she said.

However, before Mirolyubova hired specialists in Russia and in the description of vacancies she noted that she lives "between London, Moscow and the rest of the world."

“I was born and raised in Moscow, graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy of Moscow State University. Lomonosov, worked both at The World Bank and in law firms. I'm 27 years old, I live between London, Moscow and the rest of the world. For the last 2 years I have been developing with my partner Immigram - we help entrepreneurs, IT specialists and startups move and transport their business to the UK,” it was written in the description.

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On November 21, Mirolyubova announced on LinkedIn that the startup was withdrawing its candidacy from participation in the competition.

Almost at the same time, Slush posted on Twitter a statement about the annulment of Immigram's victory.

The organizers asked the participating funds to withdraw their investments, and also noted that they regret that they did not conduct a more thorough check of the participants before admitting them to the competition.

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