“ROSTELECOM” AWARDED THE WINNER TEAMS OF THE 6TH STARTUP BOOST WEEKEND

On September 20-22 Startup Boost Weekend Vol_6 project took place at Yerevan Brusov State University of Languages and Social Sciences bringing together around 120 students.

Deputy Minister of High-Tech Industry of RA Armen Abroyan, CEO of “Rostelecom” Armenia Hayk Faramazyan, representative of “Support to SME Development in Armenia” project (EU-SMEDA) under the EU4Business initiative Nune Qochinyan, Rector of Yerevan Brusov State University of Languages and Social Sciences Karine Harutyunyan were heading opening ceremony.

“Formation of creative, innovative mindset for young generation, especially students, is the base for developing Startup ecosystem, as well as understanding and implementation of the steps from idea generation to a startup. This three-day event provides students with another opportunity to interact with each other, form teams, come up with one idea, as well as to listen and interact with mentors, which is very important part of the weekend. As a result, they also learn to present their ideas in a beneficial and attractive way. Technologies move forward and today “Rostelecom” has its commitment in the formation and development of future startups through the project uniting students from 7 universities. We have quite progressive youth, and Startup Boost Weekend is one of the best projects to support them to realize their ideas. It is already the third time “Rostelecom” supports the student oriented project, assuring the fact that the winner teams always succeed in near future”, - said the CEO of “Rostelecom” Armenia Hayk Faramazyan. 

“Startup Boost Weekend Vol_6” is a 3-day event to promote entrepreneurial thinking among students. During the three days of the event students from different universities had the opportunity to work together, form teams, generate ideas and tried to realize them through integration in Startup culture. Participants got the opportunity to meet and work with experienced mentors, entrepreneurs and investors, introducing their ideas to the experienced jury.

“European Union "Support to SME Development in Armenia" (EU-SMEDA) project has been supporting the Startup Boost Weekends event already for the sixth time since its launch, as developing startups and innovative ideas are one of the project’s goals. We consider this event to be a great starting platform for young students to access the attractive startup ecosystem and develop”, - mentioned the Communication officer of European Union "Support to SME Development in Armenia" (EU-SMEDA) project Nune Qochinyan. 

During the three days 8 teams were formed who presented their ideas to the jury at the end of the third day. The winner teams were announced for

1st place - ReTrend.me platform, which promoted the recycling process of clothing. The startup aimed to create a brand of recycled clothing made in Armenia.
2nd place - Dear Wine online platform, which connected wine lovers with local winemakers, 

giving them the opportunity to buy wine directly from producers.
3rd place - Yndunvel.am platform was designed to connect students and tutors. Having centralized base of professional tutors, the platform provided the university applicants with the opportunity to easily find a suitable tutor.

“Rostelecom” Armenia awarded the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners of “Startup Boost Weekend Vol_6” respectively with 500, 350 and 200 euros. In addition, a number of startups were presented with to ICT related and self-development books.

The project Startup Boost weekend was organized jointly with “Catalyst” High Technology and Entrepreneurship Development Foundation in cooperation with EU and GIZ to “Support to SME Development in Armenia” project co-funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), YSU Entrepreneurship Development Center, startup “Breedge”, National Polytechnic University of Armenia, Armenian National Engineering Laboratories Innovation Incubators and Entrepreneurship and Product Innovation Center at AUA. 

About "Support to SME Development in Armenia" (EU-SMEDA) under EU4Business initiative

The European Union’s EU4Business initiative is an umbrella initiative, which includes all activities of the EU aimed at SME support in Eastern Partnership countries.

The "Support to SME Development in Armenia" or SMEDA project is co-funded by the European Union and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and it is implemented by GIZ’s “Private Sector Development in South Caucasus Programme”. SMEDA is part of the EU4Business and EU4Innovation initiatives of the European Union.

SMEDA aims at improving the business investment climate and supports the creation and development of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to enable broad-based growth in Armenia. In this realm the project focuses on SME policy processes, strengthening business associations and economic clusters. Furthermore, the project supports various technology oriented ventures and helps increase the competitiveness of existing SMEs by providing financial and technical assistance to develop new innovative products and services for domestic and global markets. The project aims at stimulating the rate of technology absorption, technology transfer, innovation, and commercialization of research ideas in the private sector, and also fostering the collaboration between research centers and SMEs.