Friday, July 21 2017 18:06

ArmInfo. The prize fund of  Sevan StartUp Summit business forum in 2017 was $ 40 thousand,  compared to $ 7.5 thousand a year ago, Hakob Hakobyan the founder of  the StartUp Armenia fund stated on July 21 at the press conference.

According to him, the forum has expanded not only the geography of  participants, but also investors, partners, mentors and teachers. In  particular, among the applicants besides Armenian start-ups there are  teams from India, Colombia, Iran, Georgia, and Russia. Taking into  account the unprecedented involvement of a wide partner network,  investors and companies of different directions, according to A.   Akopyan, the forum is now at the center of attention, which obliges  the Fund to work more quickly to conduct a tent business forum in  2018, with the aim of increasing the international significance of  the event. "We want to make the Sevan StartUp Summit center on the  startup map so that participation in our forum is already considered  an achievement," he stressed. In particular, the head of StartUp  Armenia noted that next year the Fund hopes to attract participants  from 30-50 countries. At the same time, the organizers associate  positive expectations with investments. In this regard, Hakobyan  noted that last year the volume of investments from investors was  about $ 30 thousand. "This year we expect investments to exceed $ 200  thousand," he said.

Ameriabank is the general partner of the business forum. "The bank  rendered financial assistance to the Fund in organizing the forum,  and the Grand prix of $ 8,000 will also be provided by Ameriabank,"  said Ameriabank's director for technology and operations, Burastan  Movsisyan, responding to a question from ArmInfo. In this regard, she  stressed that the Bank is pleased to make its contribution and be  part of a similar project that will contribute to the development of  innovative business in the country.

Within the framework of the forum, according to the organizers, for  participants from July 24 to 26 will be held 12 lectures, after which  competitions will begin on July 27 for teams of different directions,  in particular start-up-battles, competitions for programmers. Big  Battle will be held on July 30, within which the team that won first  place will receive $ 5 thousand, second place - $ 2.5 thousand and  third place - $ 1,000. At the same time, according to the forum  conditions, more than 20 teams will receive cash prizes.  The total  number of startup teams is about 100, which will present their ideas,  products and solutions in financial, technological, agricultural,  scientific, tourist and other fields. Every day, up to 1000 visitors  are expected. 700 people will live in a tent city on the shore of  Sevan for 7 days, and the number of mentors and teachers will exceed  300 people.

To note, CJSC "Ameriabank" is a universal bank that offers the   investment, corporative and retail banking services. The shareholder   of the bank is Ameria Group CY Ltd. with 100% share in the capital.