2017: Huge investments in Armenian IT

In 2017, several IT companies founded by Armenians managed to attract big investments from local and foreign venture funds and private investors.

Itel.am has put together the companies that raised USD 1 million or more in 2017.

Reddit: USD 200 million

American social news website Reddit, co-founded by Alexis Ohanian, raised USD 200 million in the company’s largest ever funding round.

The funding sources were Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, Vy Capital, Fidelity venture funds, Sam Altman (Y Combinator President), and Ron Conway (SV Angel).

Currently USD 1.8bn-worth Reddit planned to use the raised funds on the webpage update and video upload solutions. Reddit registers 300 million visitors monthly.

ServiceTitan: USD 80 million

US-based ServiceTitan, the leading provider of business management software for home service businesses, founded by Ara Mahdessian and Vahe Kuzoyan, announced that it had completed an USD 80 million Series B funding round.

The round was led by ICONIQ Capital.

Founded in 2013, ServiceTitan now has around 1000 clients. It provides a state-of-the-art software platform that allows home service businesses of any size to effortlessly manage and streamline their operations, improve customer service and grow their business.

Epic! USD 8 million

US-based leading digital library for children Epic! developed by founder of List.am Suren Markosian, raised USD 8 million in Series C funding.

The investment was led by Reach Capital with participation of TransLink Capital, Rakuten Ventures, Menlo Ventures, WI Harper, Brighteye Ventures and Innovation Endeavors.

The company planned to use the funds to accelerate growth, expand the team and build out the platform.

Epic! is a digital media brand for kids aged 12 and younger. The company had raised a total of USD 21.4 million in three rounds.

Currently Epic! is used in 87% of American elementary schools. It is available on AppStore, Google Play, and Kindle.

Teamable: USD 5 million

Provider of recruiting software for businesses Teamable, which was developed by Merushan Danielyan, Vazgen Hakobjanyan and Hovhannes Nurinjanyan, raised USD 5 million in the funding led by True Ventures.

The team planned to use the new capital to further develop Teamable’s data engine, improve the matching algorithms, and hire more people in sales and marketing.

Teamable software helps optimize workflows and create systems of record in HR. Teamable uses artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms to suggest candidates based on job requirements, skill sets, experience, and other factors.

Currently Teamable claims to have more than 50 customers, including Lyft, Stripe, and Baidu.
Founded in 2013, Teamable has offices in San Francisco and Yerevan, Armenia.

Menu Group: USD 3 million  

In October Menu Group UK Ltd announced a USD 3 million investment round to be allocated for the further regional expansion.

The main investors were Perea Capital Partners, Hayastan 1, and SOLventures.

Menu Group planned to use the investment for developing IT infrastructure, improving customer care, strengthening marketing in all markets, and entering new markets.

Earlier, the company had got a convertible loan of USD 2 million from private investors and Granatus Ventures.

In August 2017, the company consolidated leading positions in Georgia by purchasing the main competitor, Foodpanda Georgia, which belongs to one of the global leaders, Delivery Hero.

Collectly: USD 1,9 million

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

The financing for Levon Brutyan’s company was led by GoAhead Ventures, with participation from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Index Ventures, WTI, IT-Farm, Cabra.vc, Granatus Ventures, HIVE and OnWave Ventures.

Collectly’s current focus is the healthcare industry. The company is looking to implement various large projects in this sector in U.S.  To help with that effort, the team is working on integration with Athena Health and DrChrono, some of the largest electronic health record providers.

This spring Collectly participated in the acceleration program of Y Combinator, one of the most popular accelerators in America.

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In 2017 Granatus Ventures made investments in IntelinAir and XCloud Networks startups as well, but the investment volumes have not been announced. HIVE invested in Armenian Inapptics startup. The volume is not known.

Narine Daneghyan