The Tomsk Company turns ideas into world-class goods

TOMSK, June 21 – RIA Tomsk. The first-ever "cold" 3D pen by means of which it is possible "to draw" fragrances and chips, the only in the world "SIM-card machine", capable to replace  of mobile operators' sales offices, milk-machine which won't allow to sell the spoiled milk, are created in the small building on the suburb of Tomsk by young innovators.

"Science and Technology Park" of the company DI Group settles down here. The name of the company was created according to the first letters of names of the owners – Dmitry Starodubtsev and Igor Kovalyov. They managed to organize not just profitable business in the field of high technologies, but also the whole system on creation of market products from an idea stage till sales in the world market in five years.

The president of the company Igor Kovalyov showed RIA Tomsk how it is possible to create capable to surprise even the experienced American and Chinese buyer electronics in the small Siberian city.

"Cold" break through

"We didn't want to create next 3D pen, we took another way, – and Igor shows the most known development of the company. – What problems do the existing pens have? Nozzle temperature is 340 degrees: if you touch it with a hand, it will very hurt; if you drip the melted plastic on skin it will be possible to unstick it only with a knife. The second point is limitation of ink. The third is inconvenience. It is power-intensive, works only from the socket. The fourth is plastic stinks".

Developers decided that the ink has to be cold and differ on "taste" and color, the pen has to be autonomous and work with an accumulator. So the first-ever 3D pen with cold ink which stiffens under the influence of light was born.

"the Inks are absolutely different: multi-colored, magnetic, thermal contrast (the color depends on the temperature), shining in the dark, aromatic, for skin drawing, conducting and not conducting, by means of which, for example, it is possible to draw a chip, – Kovalyov lists. – it is possible to draw the line of 15-17 meters with a diameter of 1 millimeter by means of one cartridge ".

For example, it is possible "to draw" a model of the small plane with four cartridges, and fragrance for a car which will "work" at least two-three months with aromatic ink. The production of pens started in the Chinese Shenzhen this year, and the ink are made only in Tomsk.

Sales of pens will be started in the USA and the countries of Southeast Asia in the summer where a huge interest was showed to a novelty by both distribution networks and shops, and large Internet retailers.

"Now all rights to 3D pen and ink are transferred the Creopop company. It attracted the foreign investments which are sufficient for start of a mass production, and also for advance of the product in the market of the USA, Europe and Asia", – Kovalyov notices.

Robot is against expenses

The other novelty of the company is the device on delivery of SIM cards and service of subscribers of mobile network operators.

"It is not so easy to purchase a SIM card in Russia: it is necessary to go to an office with a passport. Operators are compelled to contain a huge number of service centers, and it is expensive. "SIM-card machine" removes this problem", – Kovalyov tells.

The machine verifies authenticity of the passport makes its copy, compares the client to a photo on the passport via the webcam. If everything is right, the client chooses service, pays for it, "SIM-card machine" prints out the contract, gives out a pen for the signature, and accepts a copy and places in the scanner of documents.

"It checks what the person wrote, whether the signature is correct. If everything is correct, it gives out a SIM card. Also it can sell phones and accessories, as well as a set of vending cars. The first advantage of the device is a lack of human labor. The second is multilingualism that is especially relevant for big cities", – is marked out by Kovalyov.

Moreover "SIM-card machine" allows the owner to save their money. The Tomsk device is notable for its ability to realize all complex of actions for registration of the subscriber, including identification.

DI Group developed own scanner of the passport which is cheaper than analogs more than 10 times. The foreign device before December, 2014 cost about 60 thousand rubles, and now it is even more expensive, the price of the Tomsk scanner is only 5 thousand rubles.

The Tomsk Company started negotiations with the largest mobile operator of China, Singapore and Thailand.

Moreover "SIM-card machine" will become a basis for other vending cars on rendering the services connected with identification of the personality. "We communicate with Philippines, where is the most developed microeconomics in the world. There the machine with this platform will be used for delivery of microloans", – Kovalyov tells.

Best for less

Milk-machine is automatic machines for sale of milk like a lemonade machine. It is not new for Tomsk. In several shops citizens can buy milk with such devices.

"But their trouble is that they are Italian, their price is about 8 thousand euro. Our machine's price is much lower, plus our functionality, and technologies are better", – Igor says.

"There are a lot of electronics in it: inclination sensors; billing system; heating monitoring system. For example, if suddenly something breaks, temperature will rise mil-machine blocks sale and contacts the owner", – the businessman lists the advantages of the development.

According to him, the machine allows to save money significantly: there is no packing, no seller, rental price is low – it requires only two square meters of the area. Besides, the machine allows to sell fresh milk. If it wasn't sold in a day, the machine blocks sale.

Initially the company was focused on small farmers who could sell their milk with this machine, but unexpectedly the machine attracted major producers.

"They use them for promotion of their production", – Kovalyov tells.

DI Group creates now an automatic machine for koumiss (mare's milk) sale for the company from Kazakhstan.

Lazy business

"These machines are already in 20 countries of the world – in Europe, Asia. It costs 100 thousand rubles, and, for example, it gains revenue in 300 thousand rubles monthly in one of the museums of Moscow. It is lazy business: you just put souvenir coins inside", – Kovalyov shows another development – the automatic machine for sale souvenir coins.

Unlike Chinese analogs, the Tomsk device can sell not 4, but to 36 types of coins. Also the developer makes necessary clichés for production of coins what is not done by competitors.

Another machine allows to make a souvenir of a usual coin of 1 ruble. You just need to insert 1 ruble into an opening, to choose a picture, turn the steering wheel, and it is ready. Similar machines are nearly in each snack bar abroad, Kovalyov says.

"They are used at exhibitions, events. And there are logos, contacts, something else on the coin. It is a free advertising medium which won't be thrown out because the person makes it by himself", – the head of the company notes.

The developers have already sold about 300 of such machines, 15 of them work in Prague, mainly in museums. There are no competitors of DI Group in this direction in Russia because reducer in such machines can't produce the synchronized bilateral image on a coin.

"It is very difficult to synchronize picture ideally from the both sides. We developed and patented own reducer which is able to do it", – he summarized.

Now DI Group gets ready to start a small production of "touching" sand which is popular now. The Tomsk product will be several times cheaper than the analogs. Young scientists develop this technology in a small laboratory.

"We have everything we need to create pilot batches of new products: from machining with high-precision numerical program control, the equipment for fast prototyping, testing, production of microelectronic cards, to the chemical equipment for synthesis of polymers", – the businessman explains.

Through Tomsk into the world

"It is the first-ever TouchPico projector – TouchPico which were developed by Chinese. We financed it through our Singapore accelerator and helped to get market access", – Kovalyov tells about another sphere of work of DI Group (it is financing of projects and getting market access).

TouchPico is like interactive boards which are actively used at schools and higher education institutions: the device turns any surface into the touch screen. It works with Android-based platform, is "faster" than the analogs, it is possible to use tens of thousands of ready applications with it, and there is enough space for it on a palm.

"One more function is an entertainment: it is possible to play with it in any place (for example, Angry Birds), or to lie with a child and watch a cartoon on a ceiling. It is less harmful, than to watch at a radiation source directly, TouchPico has the reflected light", – he tells.

"We brought him to crowd funding; the device collected more than 900 thousand dollars. We attracted investments, brought to the market, and now it is serially produced and sold in the USA", – the head of the company notes.

The Other sphere of work of Tomsk group is engineering service and R&D. "We can quickly develop, produce, test, and remake something, using the potential of our partners. We produce everything: from packing to distribution", – he notes.

One more service is accounting and legal support of projects worldwide. DI-Group was succeeded to gather a team which operates all finance of more than 20 group's companies in Russia, Singapore, the USA and Hong Kong. "It isn't enough teams with such competences: our experts understand the English law, the tax law, regulations", – Kovalyov tells.

Features of the national consumer

Igor spoke seldom about gadgets on which the company works, were on sale in Russia. The businessman says: Russians aren't ready to consume fun (entertainment).

"When we brought the 3D pen to crowd funding, I asked my friends to support it in social networks. We collected 207 thousand dollars. How do you think, how many orders were from Russia? 1%", – he explains.

According to Kovalyov, limiting factor of consumption of such novelties in Russia is low consumer ability.

At the same time he expressed confidence, that one day there will be these gadgets in Russia".

P.S.

We asked why the company still stays in Tomsk which isn't absolutely convenient for the international business.

"There is the team here, not everyone can move. There is a "cheap" intelligence: a lot of clever children with a high potential are in Tomsk. It is great to work in Singapore. But it is the most expensive city of the world, the engineer's salary there is 10 thousand dollars a month. The whole group of engineers can work for us for this money".

One more reason is Tomsk higher education institutions, Igor says. According to him, it is possible to find almost any equipment in the universities.

"Also it is possible to agree about its use. It is possible to find everything in Singapore, but it is very expensive. Everything is cheaper, simpler here. More closely to each other everything is. Despite some difficulties, it is rather comfortable here", – he summed up.