HUB Silicon Valley intends to open a center in Yerevan

HUB Silicon Valley global network, centered in Palo Alto (California), soon will have a center in Armenia as well.

Itel.am received this information from Hub Silicon Valley founder and CEO Mariianne Crary at the “Impact Investment for Development” global summit.

Hub Silicon Valley will have representations in the countries with scientific and technological potential, local financing, active entrepreneurs and solutions. The network includes over 300 mentors, experts and investors from Silicon Valley.

Hub Silicon Valley has a hub in Georgia since June of 2016. Apart from Armenia, they intend to open hubs in Denmark (Copenhagen), South Africa and Scotland in 2017.

“We started discussions on this with people here [in Armenia] now. So we don’t quite know when we can open the hub, but we really want to do it very fast – at least in 3-6 months. We have a virtual hub in Georgia. We work with many startups there and we are thinking of doing something perhaps including Georgia and Armenia together,” Mariianne Crary told Itel.am.Answering the question if the hub will be virtual, Mariianne Crary stated that the final decision on that matter is yet to be made.

Answering the question if the hub will be virtual, Mariianne Crary stated that the final decision on that matter is yet to be made.

“Those are details that we still need to find out. We actually plan to bring Silicon Valley action here so that the Georgians and Armenians have access to Silicon Valley; to mentors, access to good knowledge, new things in technology,” said Hub Silicon Valley CEO.

As for assisting local startups in getting to Silicon Valley, Mariianne Crary said:

“Yes, for some startups it will be an optimal place to go. We’re actually planning to create cross border companies. In order to achieve Silicon Valley funding, there has to be a presence there, but you can also have most of the jobs done back home. So we are not interested in stealing the best startups of Armenia, but we want them to have an impact here.”

Hub Silicon Valley CEO also informed that soon they will start working with Armenian companies and learn more about what the startup landscape looks like in the country.

Narine Daneghyan