Bagrat Yengibaryan: Armenia is already known in Silicon Valley

Armenia IT Forum took place on June 10 in Silicon Valley, during which parties discussed the trends of Armenian IT development and prospects of positioning in the international arena.

Talking to Itel.am Bagrat Yengibaryan, Director of Enterprise Incubator Foundation today said:
“The forum showed that Armenia, as a country, is already known in Silicon Valley”.

“We were mainly talking and they were listening, I think we have never had such a forum, where we have had this number of foreign speakers. It was important that a large number of local and foreign startups were present. An interesting trend was observed: there were more startups than large companies from Armenia present in the forum, it used to be the other way around”, he said.

According to Bagrat Yengibaryan, the forum was attended by representatives of IT companies and universities as well as a large number of angel investors and venture capital funds, which got to know Armenian startups within not formal meetings.

“This visit was important for Armenian startups. They saw what was happening outside. Even if there are no investments now, it is a great step towards future investments as the startups, that were present during the forum, realized two things -how to treat investors and how to accommodate global market. The more we motivate startups to go to Silicon Valley, the more excited they will continue to work in Armenia”, Bagrat Yengibaryan highlighted.

He compared the startups’ visit to Silicon Valley with spending vacations at sea and coming back refreshed.

“Everyone comes back all refreshed and relaxed from a vacation at sea: Silicon Valley is IT’s sea”, EIF Director joked.