Out of over 550 teams of young entrepreneurs from seven countries, who signed up to participate in the competition, a panel of judges selected the top three winners during the EMC Challenge regional final in Moscow on 28 January.

Artasian from Kyrgyzstan (with social entrepreneurship project to help talented artisans from Central Asia to reach customers globally), Mdirect from Kazakhstan (with an app for online selling of auto parts) and Stolik from Uzbekistan (who had a developed an international app for restaurant table bookings)are the winning teams. Following yesterday’s regional final, the three teams will participate in the Global Mobile Challenge final in Barcelona at the Mobile World Congress, 22-26 February 2016.

Dmitry Shukov, CEO of Unitel said: “I am really proud of Uzbekistan team success as well as active involvement of the country’s entrepreneurs into Eurasia Mobile Challenge project. It means that during last years telecom sphere made the significant quality and quantity jump. I congratulate Stolik team for the deserved recognition and wish success in Barcelona”.

The Eurasia Mobile Challenge, launched in September, is an initiative of VimpelCom’s Make Your Mark program. The competition is being run in partnership with Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. and aims to foster an active digital start-up ecosystem in Eurasia and harness the considerable technical expertise within mobile solutions.

During the regional event in Moscow, VimpelCom also launched a report conducted in collaboration with A.T. Kearney, a leading global management consulting firm, “Digital Entrepreneurship in Russia: how Russia can build a world-class digital ecosystem.” The report gives an exclusive insight into the digital entrepreneurial ecosystem in Russia, identifying success factors and barriers as well as growth opportunities in the fields of technology and digital innovation.