#TechSummer: Summary

Despite summer heat and vacation moods, the past three months highlighted some significant international victories, IT events and investments. Itel.am sums up #TechSummer.

Armenia took the third place in FIRST Global international robotics event

TUMO team representing Armenia got the third place at FIRST Global international robotics competition.

Teams from 163 countries participated in the event. Europe team took the first place followed by Polish team in the second place.

Armenian students’ mobile app won international contest
 
Armenian Sign Language app, developed by One Step Ahead school team from Karbi village of Armenia won (in Armenian) in “Education” category of Technovation Challenge international contest.

The Armenians competed with 99 teams from 27 countries.   
 
Sevan Startup Summit 2017 with USD 45k prize fund took place this summer

The prize was divided between 18 teams.

Apart from the prize money, summit participants got a unique chance to connect with startuppers and business people.

WITSA officials visited Armenia within DigiTec Business Forum

Yerevan will host World Congress on Information Technology (WCIT) in 2019, organized by WISTA. Preparatory work was discussed (in Armenian) within the frames of 10th DigiTec Business Forum in June.

Itel.am’s interview with WISTA officials is available here.

Mentorship Day by Startup Wise Guys accelerator took place in Yerevan

In the end of June Yerevan hosted Investor and Mentorship Day, organized by Startup Wise Guys accelerator (Estonia), Paris-based StartDoon investment initiative and Microsoft Innovation Center with support from smartgate.vc and Inapptics.

Itel.am’s interview with representatives of Startup Wise Guys is available here.

Yandex and Uber decided to create new combined company

Yandex and Uber announced foundation of a combined company, which will operate in Russia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia and Kazakhstan. The company will carry out 35 million transfers monthly. Yandex will be the leading partner.  

Armenian specialists presented new solutions at Engineering Forum-Expo in Vanadzor  

Engineering Forum-Expo was held on June 24 at Vanadzor Technology Center. Armenian specialists introduced their solutions relating to the development of self-driving cars, 5G global research and aerospace engineering.  

UAV LAB exhibited three models of locally produced unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

A number of Armenian founders raised large investments

Alexis Ohanian’s Reddit raised USD 200mn in the company’s largest ever funding round. Reddit is now valued at USD 1.8bn.

Levon Brutyan’s U.S.-based Armenian Collectly startup raised USD 1,9mn seed financing. The company offers machine learning-based system of debt management for corporate clients.

Armenian-based Volterman smart wallet team raised more than USD 1mn in online crowdfunding.

U.S.-based Epic! leading digital library for children, developed by founder of List.am Suren Markosian, announced USD 8mn in Series C funding.

Narine Daneghyan