16:32 | 17.10.16 | News | exclusive 202432

HIVE partners speak about IT developments in Armenia

Silicon Valley UNLEASHED: Inside Tech’s Greatest Minds event, organized by HIVE Seed Fund, took place on October 15, Tumo Center for Creative Technologies in Yerevan.

Itel.am talked to HIVE Seed Fund partners Nina Achadjian and Adam Kablanian.

Nina Achadjian told that the fund’s mission has slightly changed recently, and currently the fund is focused on investments, directed to Armenian startups in the beginning of their development.
 
“There was a demand in repeating such an event after another such convention at Tumo Center, which took place in April last year; that is why we came back this year. Although the stress was mostly put on engineers last year, we wanted to extend the circle of guests and themes this year. We gathered technology entrepreneurs, founders, programmers, etc., and the themes would be interesting to all the mentioned groups. I think that today’s event will contribute to the interaction between Armenian entrepreneurs and Silicon Valley experts,” she noted.

Nina Achadjian noticed positive changes among Armenian startups this year in comparison to the last year.

“The startups have matured. The quality of product introduction and thinking skills improved. The mission of HIVE is to make investments to people and ideas, which “are hungry”, work hard to understand the market and spend a lot of time on product development. We like being the part of their development,” she remarked.

HIVE partner Adam Kablanian observed in his turn that the fund invests only startups, but never a mature capital.

“The number of startups has rapidly grown during the last year. This is very welcoming and gives us a great opportunity of choice. Regarding startup quality, it is difficult to speak about it, as you never know which startup is going to be successful. A startup may not have high quality in the beginning, but it may succeed in two years. So we regard all startups equally, as you never know which one of them will eventually win. Even if we do not invest in the startup, we wish to encourage and educate them. And the event serves that exact mission,” HIVE partner told.  

Narine Daneghyan