HIVE: Armenian startups growing faster than ever

HIVE Summit 2017: Hacking Silicon Valley was held on October 14, Yerevan. The event gathered famous representatives of the American IT market, particularly Silicon Valley.

HIVE, an organization backed by the Hirair and Anna Hovnanian Foundation, is aiming to catalyze the global Armenian tech community through early stage finding and mentorship. HIVE hosted it's third annual Tech Summit at the TUMO Center this past weekend.

HIVE partner Nina Achadjian remarked in a conversation with Itel.am that this event was unprecedented both by the number of participants and invited speakers.

photo © HIVE

“Our event sold out completely this year, and we brought more speakers from the highest profile companies like Yelp, Ripple, Google, Facebook, Robinhood and top tier VC-s,” she said.

According to Nina Achadjian, Armenian startup ecosystem has registered an unprecedented progress over the last period.
 
“When we first started HIVE in 2014, we evaluated 50 startups that were investable, while we have already noticed 350 so far this year. So there is pretty amazing growth. I think more people in Armenian tech are willing to take risks to establish startups. There is an excitement of opportunity and actual funding available now,” HIVE partner stressed.

photo © HIVE

Nina Achadjian noted that PicsArt, ServiceTitan, CodeFights, Teamable, Inapptics, Wakie, IntelinAir and Bazillion Beings are among the most successful Armenian startups.  

HIVE will launch a mentorship program for Armenian startups in a next couple of months. HIVE also intends to organize an event in San Francisco with participation of Armenian startups.

Narine Daneghyan