The winners of the ‘EU4Business Science and Technology Entrepreneurship’ (EU4Business STEP2) grant competition were announced on 27 November after a tough two-day competition and pitching in front of a professional jury and mentors.
Fifteen start-up teams were selected out of 29 short-listed teams. All underwent a series of trainings with mentors and coaches to improve their presentation and business skills prior to the final selection.
The winners will have access to funding of up to €15,000 to implement their innovative business ideas, ranging from prototypes up to already existing solutions and apps that need further development.
“Among our winners are not only projects from the IT industry, but also from a wide geography of sectors, which are some of the most developing sectors in the world. This is giving us a signal that we are on the right track and proves that Armenia is a country where such innovative start-up ideas are available,” said Bagrat Yengibaryan, Director of the Enterprise Incubator Foundation, which implements the STEP2 grant competition with EU-SMEDA.
The winning start-ups of EU4Business STEP2 competition are:
- ARize Augmented Reality Platform by Triple-E
- Breedge
- Cyber Deceptions and Honeypot Orchestration System
- D'efekt
- Forest guard
- @Cow.Net
- Lift UP
- New luminescent coatings with high brightness and long afterglow
- PinoKIT
- RendChain
- Robin the Robot
- Smartlock
- The Last Daredevil by Cyber Mantis Games
“This event is an important benchmark for the start-up ecosystem in Armenia,” said Stanislav Toshkov, International Aid/Cooperation Officer at the EU Delegation to Armenia. “In the last couple of years together with our partners from GIZ and the EU-SMEDA project, we have implemented a number of initiatives supporting start-up entrepreneurship in Armenia. Today this competition is a combination of our efforts. The EU remains committed and will continue to support the Armenian start-up ecosystem,” Toshkov said.
EU4Business STEP2 grant competition was launched by the “Support to SME Development in Armenia” (EU-SMEDA) project and implemented in cooperation with the Enterprise Incubator Foundation (EIF).
EU4Business STEP2 aims at promoting entrepreneurship and advancing innovative technology-based ideas in Armenia. It is designed to help start-up teams, innovators, scientists, engineers, researchers, and entrepreneurs to move their products to the market and create new ventures.
The EU4Business SMEDA (Support to SME Development in Armenia) project supports the improvement of the business and investment climate for SMEs in Armenia. It aims to strengthen the private sector, support SME coordination mechanisms, and foster links between research institutions and the private sector, as well as providing access to finance for SMEs.