Ishkhan Tank unites Armenian startups and investors

7 startups taking part in Microsoft Innovation Center’s Startup Acceleration Program presented their projects to the investing “Armenian ishkhans” within Ishkhan Tank event.

The idea of the event was born during the Shark Tank American reality show where billionaire investors immediately made investments in startups.

During Ishkhan Tank on March 27, “ishkhans” Razmik Abnous (CTO for EMC Documentum product family, investor, mentor from California), Berge Ayvazian, Senior Analyst/Consultant with Wireless 20/20, Investor and mentor from Boston), Michel Davoudian (Founder and General Manager of Groupe Infodis SA France and Belgium, Founder of APAGA Technologies CJSC in Armenia, for the deployment of OZONE in Armenia), Nareg Sogomonian ( the founder of Entrance Studios, Philadelphia based multi-faceted company) listened to the start-ups’ presentations and asked questions to them. After the discussions which lasted several days, they will select the best ones and continue mentorship.

Flaxton, Ask on’FLY, Home Planning, Penny, Linguacode, DHUNT and Play&learn startups took part in the presentation.

“We are involved in various events within the Acceleration Program. It’s already 6-7 weeks that distinguished persons from abroad hold online meetings for the teams. A few days ago, I contacted Razmik Abnous and Berge Ayvazian to organize such a meeting. They offered to choose the best after listening to the startups and do further mentorship. It’s an important opportunity for a startup to link to specialists who understand the overseas market”, Manager of Startup Acceleration Program Artashes Vardanyan said to Itel.am.

He has noted that in this phase, they avoid to speak about investments taking into account the fact that the startups are new. In future, in case a startup is successful, many people will want to invest money in it. Talking to Itel.am, Michel Davoudian talked about the positive impressions from the startups.

“What is interesting is that the presented startups constitute various business areas. As a result, we will select and mentor a few of them. The world is moving forward and we should try to catch up with the developments. The more Armenian startups the better as only a few of them will prove successful eventually. If we don’t have numerous startups we won’t be able to find the best ones”, he said.

Narine Daneghyan