The Skolkovo Foundation is considering launching a new fund managed by real market players to support Skolkovo start-ups, Firrma.ru , citing Vasily Belov, the senior vice president for innovation at the Foundation.

It was earlier reported that the Skolkovo Foundation had unveiled plans to help its residents look for customers and do deals with them. According to reports, Skolkovo was expecting a commission as a percentage of a deal’s value. Several Skolkovo start-ups are said to have already agreed to the terms. However, the Foundation has not yet formalized the decision, and it’s not yet clear how this is going to work, and if this will materialize at all.

Experts believe that the implementation of this new initiative could help verify a hypothesis that a fund’s direct involvement in the selling of solutions and services by its residents can boost the growth of residents’ revenue.

The Skolkovo Foundation is an NGO set up in September 2010 as an initiative from the then President Medvedev of Russia. The Foundation supports scientific research in five areas, including energy / energy efficiency, outer space, biomedicine, nuclear tech, and IT. As of June 30, 2015, the Skolkovo residents had more than a billion dollars in aggregate sales. By that time the resident companies had more than $200m in investment, over 17,500 new jobs created, and 753 patents obtained.