Turkey-Armenia Entrepreneurship Program Gets the Spotlight at TOBB Startup Istanbul Ten successful startups from Armenia traveled to TOBB Startup Istanbul, which took place between October 6-10.
Within the scope of Turkey-Armenia Entrepreneurship Program which was started in 2014 by TEPAV and Public Journalism Club (PJC), representatives of ten successful Armenian startups had the opportunity to participate in Startup Istanbul.
The event brought together 1000 entrepreneurs from 63 countries. Leading global venture capital funds and other big investors such as Abraaj Capital, 500Startups, Andreessen Horowitz, YCombinator, Lumia Capital, Wamda Capital, Rubicon Capital were present at the event to meet with entrepreneurs, listen to their ideas and assess investment opportunities. On October 6th and 7th, ten Armenian Startups selected by the Turkey Armenia Exchange of Entrepreneurs Program had the opportunity to meet with and pitch their business ideas to investors, mentors and entrepreneurs from all around the world. For the Demo Day organized on 8th of October, 50 startups were selected by the mentors and pitched to the jury. Armenian Startups Earlyone and Skycryptor qualified for this stage and became two of the the top 50 startups. From this group, Skycryptor then qualified for the final stage of Startup Istanbul.
The final stage of Startup Istanbul was held on October 10 in Volkswagen Arena, where President of TOBB, M.Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu, delivered the opening speech. Having qualified for the final stage among hundreds of business ideas; Armenian startup Skycryptor became one of the 15 finalists to take the stage and pitch their business idea to the vibrant crowd of Startup Istanbul. After his successful pitch, founder of Skycryptor Aram Jivanyan indicated that 500Startups, one of the world’s leading global venture capital seed funds and startup accelerators, expressed their interest for a series of meetings for a potential investment. Skycryptor and 500Startups investment talks are still ongoing and expected to be finalized very soon.
