Winners of Startup Boost Weekend Vol3 announced

National Polytechnic University of Armenia hosted Startup Boost Weekend Vol3 on December 1-2. The event was aimed at boosting entrepreneurial thinking among students.

The opening of the event was attended by Gonzalo Serrano, Head of Cooperation Section of EU Delegation to Armenia, Mariam Babayan, Team Leader of “EU Support to SME Development in Armenia” project (EU-SMEDA), Ruzanna Safaryan, Head of ImpactAim Venture Accelerator, and Rostelecom Armenia CEO Hayk Faramazyan.

Gonzalo Serrano, Head of the Cooperation Section of the EU Delegation in Armenia presented the scope of the support measures that EU provides for development of innovation and startup ecosystems in Armenia, since these sectors are one of the pillars for development of the national economy in Armenia. "We will help the Armenian Government in their objective to make the country a hub of IT and innovations", he concluded.

Mariam Babayan, Team leader of EU -SMEDA project implemented by GIZ mentioned:

"We support the Startup Boost Weekend event for the third time as we strongly believe that young people have the right potential to boost innovation and IT in the country, and this event is the first step to help them enter entrepreneurship world and create their startups with future achievements ahead".

Rostelecom Armenia CEO Hayk Faramazyan noted that he attaches special importance to participation of students from Armenian leading universities in the event. According to him, entrepreneurial thinking should be developed during years at university. He emphasized that the company was established as a startup, and today it is among leading operators in Armenia, while new interesting projects are expected after the event.

10 teams were formed in two days, and they presented their ideas to the jury at the end of the second day. The winning teams are:

- Eventor.am - free and fast online kid birthday organizer based on Mam’s social media preferences

- EyeZ - an assistive device for visually impaired people to provide with greater mobility

- PromoCar - matching brands with car owners who want to drive with an ad decal on their car allowing them to earn extra income

Rostelecom provided the winning teams with USD 600 and USD 400 for the first and second places. The second team also got the opportunity to participate in ANEL Startup Incubator program.

Startup Boost Weekend Vol3 program was implemented by Catalyst Foundation in cooperation with Support to SME Development (EU-SMEDA) Project, co-funded by the European Union and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and implemented by GIZ’s Private Sector Development in South Caucasus Programme, Armenian National Engineering Laboratories Innovation Incubator (National Polytechnic University of Armenia), and AUA’s Entrepreneurship and Product Innovation Center (EPIC).

The event was supported by Rostelecom Armenia, Impact Aim, Creatr, Hero House-ը and CA Training and Consulting.