Picsart Partners with Deutsche Telekom! 🚀

As announced by Mikayel Vardanyan, Picsart’s AI Avatars will be natively integrated into Deutsche Telekom’s upcoming AI phone!

What this means:
• AI-Enhanced Phone – Deutsche Telekom’s new AI phone will seamlessly integrate AI into daily tasks: designing, writing emails, translating, and more.
• 48M+ Customers – Picsart’s AI Avatars will be available to millions of users across Europe.
• Top AI Players – Picsart joins Google Cloud AI, ElevenLabs, and Perplexity in powering this next-gen AI experience.

👉 Learn more about the Deutsche Telekom's AI-Enhanced Phone here.

Excited to see the progress of Picsart - Congrats to the team on this milestone! 👏

#Picsart #DeutscheTelekom #AIPhone #Partnership

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Podcastle Unveils their AI Text-to-Speech Race with Asyncflow v1.0! 🚀

Podcastle launched AI-powered text-to-speech functionality with its newly launched Asyncflow v1.0, offering 450+ AI voices and a developer-friendly API for seamless app integration.

Two Major Breakthroughs:

Unlimited Voice Generation from Prompts: You can generate unlimited voice skins from simple prompts. Premium-quality voices are delivered at dramatically more accessible prices than anyone else in the market.

3-Second Voice Cloning with Perfect Fidelity: The model can clone a voice from just 3 seconds of audio! It captures the entire voice signature - pitch, prosody, timbre, intonation, accent - allowing you to create an unlimited number of personalized voice variations with different moods and styles.

Learn more about this breakthrough on TechCrunch arcticle.

Source: LinkedIn post of Podcastle's Founder & CEO Arto Yeritsyan.

Amazing to see this happening - congrats to Podcastle team on this milestone! 👏

#TextToSpeech #Podcastle #Asyncflow #SuccessStory

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🚀 Microchip Expands in Armenia with a New Office in Yerevan!

Microchip Technology partners with Armenian Venture Studio Instigate for several years. In 2023 Microchip acquired Instigate Semiconductor.

The collaboration between Instigate and Microchip continues as Instigate continues advising Microchip on Armenian operations. Worth noting, that the company supports the next-generation talent nurturing for Mirochip facilitating internship opportunities for the students of Real School in Microchip.

Microchip has centers 4 Armenian cities - Yerevan, Gyumri, Vanadzor and Ijevan.

Notable Quote from Microchip Executive: “If you’re looking for top talent in Europe, there’s no better place than Armenia.” – Rajeev Jayaraman, Sr. Director, Microchip.

Read full article by

👏 Congrats to Instigate team on this success!

(c) Sources: Economy of Armenia, Armenpress

#ArmeniaTech #Instigate #Microchip

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Alexis Ohanian just announced that he is bidding to buy TikTok US 😯

Let’s see how it goes! 👀

Read more about this news here: Reuters Article

#TikTok #Web3 #AlexisOhanian

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As How2B reports, Web3 Armenia has issued an open letter expressing disagreement with the Central Bank of Armenia’s proposed crypto regulations. You can read the letter here (in Armenian).

We'd love to hear CBA’s response and see both organizations, along with the Government and the National Assembly engage in a constructive dialogue to shape the future of fintech innovation in Armenia.

Meanwhile, neighboring Georgia is taking a proactive approach. The National Bank of Georgia recently initiated a national fintech strategy focused on:

1. Progressive regulation to support fintech startups
2. Early-stage experimentation with blockchain and emerging technologies
3. Cross-border fintech collaboration to scale Georgian startups internationally

While it’s exciting to see this development in brotherly Georgia, it also serves as a wake-up call for Armenia. With our startup ecosystem, banking sector, and diaspora connections, fintech has a huge development potential here. Public-private partnerships are key to making that happen! Let’s foster dialogue and drive innovation forward.

#FinTech #Web3Armenia #CBA #Regulation #Innovation #PPP #Dialogue

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Applications Now Open for She Wins Climate! 🌍

She Wins Climate program is designed for woman-led startup based in Eastern Europe or Central Asia tackling climate challenges.

What’s in it for you?
• Funding opportunities – Connect with top investors & pitch your startup
• Mentorship – Expert guidance in climate innovation & entrepreneurship
• Visibility – Get global exposure to partners & stakeholders
• Tailored training – Master investment readiness & pitching

Application Deadline: March 17, 2025
Apply Here: https://vc4a.com/ifc/she-wins-climate-acceleration-program-2025/

The She Wins Climate Program 2025 is supported by IFC and implemented by VC4A, adelphi, and EBAN.

#SheWinsClimate #WomenInTech #ClimateInnovation

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Dear Community:

Consider joining a webinar created to introduce the She Wins Climate Program 2025.

Discover how you can apply as a startup, or contribute as a partner—whether through referring a startup, sharing the program, mentoring, investor training, or jury participation—and unlock exclusive benefits.

From renewable energy, water conservation, sustainable urban systems, to climate-smart agriculture, this program is driving bold innovation in the fight for a sustainable future.

👉 Make sure to register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_5xqD5OQ5Qx-QDzA9qEm1Jw

#SheWinsClimate #WomenInTech #ClimateInnovation

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Georgy Starikov (NVIDIA Armenia) will make a deep dive into observability in microservices - logs, metrics, tracing, and team structure.

You'll learn how to:
- Monitor and manage microservices efficiently
- Use structured logs, metrics & dashboards
- Improve service interactions and team collaboration

Dates: March 18, 20, 25 & April 1
Time: 16:30
Venue: Room 415W, PAB, American University of Armenia

Registration deadline: March 16, 15:00 - https://lnkd.in/eZxb2uPt

#Microservices #Observability #DevOps #AUA

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STRIVE Pre-Incubation Program – Applications NOW OPEN!

Ready to develop your entrepreneurial mindset? Join AUA EPIC's STRIVE, a 10-week immersive program designed to equip you with the fundamentals of entrepreneurship and innovation!

What’s in it for you?
- Interactive lectures, meetups & workshops
- Insights from industry leaders & networking opportunities
- Personal & professional coaching

No startup idea needed - just curiosity and a desire to learn!

Eligibility:
- Age 18+
- Available for weekly in-person sessions at AUA (7-9 PM)
- English proficiency (intermediate+)

Application Deadline: March 14, 2025
👉 Apply here: tinyurl.com/5dms926r

#STRIVE #Entrepreneurship #Innovation #PreIncubation #AUA #EPIC

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🚀 Alexis Ohanian’s 776 Foundation Climate Fellowship – Applications OPEN!

776 Foundation accepts applications for its 4th cohort. They will give away $2M in grants to support 20 young changemakers tackling climate change!

What's in it for you?
- Up to $100,000 per Fellow over two years.
- Open to international applicants.
- For 18-24 year olds looking to build impactful solutions.

Key Dates:
- Final remote interviews: May 2025
- Cohort start date: June 2025

Find more details and apply today: https://776.org

#776Foundation #ClimateFellowship #AlexisOhanian

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🚀 Alchemist Accelerator – Applications Due Soon!

Are you building the next big B2B startup? Alchemist Accelerator is now accepting applications for its next cohort!

Why Alchemist?
• A premier accelerator designed for enterprise startups
• Access to top investors, mentors, and corporate partners
• $450K investment and a powerful founder network

Application Deadline: March 21, 2025
📌 Apply Here: https://www.alchemistaccelerator.com/apply

#AlchemistAccelerator #B2BStartups #VentureFunding #FounderJourney

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🚀 Grants for alums of Armenia Startup Academy!

Applications are now open for the Idea Seed Stage Grant, exclusively for Armenia Startup Academy alumni!

What’s in it for you?
• Up to €10K in grant funding to fuel your startup’s growth
• Support in securing local and EU grants
• Access to global accelerators, mentors, and investor networks

Application deadline: March 28, 2025
Find more details and apply here 👉: https://www.startupacademy.am/pre-acceleration-program

The program is supported through the Private Sector Development and Technical Vocational Education and Training in Armenia project, commissioned by the German Government and implemented by GIZ.

#ArmeniaStartupAcademy #HeroHouse #IdeaSeedGrant #GIZ

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YC Summer Fellows Grants for Students!

YC is launching the Summer Fellows Grants, offering $20,000 in cash and $90,000 in compute credits for students to work on technical projects this summer. YC is interested in funding projects that use AI in new and creative ways, but the program is open to any technical project that impresses fellow programmers.

Who Can Apply?
• Undergraduate students in computer science or engineering, including first-year students and international applicants
• Exceptionally technical students from other majors (e.g., those with impressive open-source contributions)
• Individuals (though applicants can indicate if they plan to collaborate with others)

Selected candidates (from 20 to 50) will be invited for a 15-minute video interview at the end of March.

📌 Application deadline: March 28, 9:00 PM PT
👉 More details and apply: https://events.ycombinator.com/summer-fellows

#FellowGrants #YC #ApplyNow

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Google’s Largest Acquisition: $32B Wiz Deal

Google is buying cloud security startup Wiz for $32 billion in an all-cash deal. Wiz will remain an independent platform working across all cloud providers.

Notably, Index Ventures - where Nina Achadjian is a partner - was among Wiz’s early supporters.

The deal still requires regulatory approval and is expected to close in 2026.

#Google #Wiz #IndexVentures
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🚀 GIST Innovates South Caucasus is now accepting applications!

This 8-week intensive program is designed to help startups refine their ideas, find product-market fit, and gain expert mentorship from top U.S. and regional experts.

Timeline:
- Application Deadline: March 28, 2025
- Program Starts: June 20, 2025

Why join?
- Potential funding opportunities – last year’s teams secured funding!
- Travel stipend for in-person workshops in Tbilisi.
- Hands-on training in startup growth & customer discovery
- Access to world-class mentors & startup experts

Who can apply?

- Armenian founders (ages 18-40)
- Tech or science-based startups (almost everyone is eligible!)

Apply here 👉: https://www.gistnetwork.org/sc

#GISTInnovates #IdeaExploration #Funding #Mentorship #EPIC

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SupperAnnotate announces collaboration with NVIDIA 🎉

SuperAnnotate is taking AI model evaluation to the next level by integrating NVIDIA NeMo Evaluator, a cutting-edge microservice designed to benchmark generative AI models and streamline data quality management. This collaboration aims to address a major challenge in AI development: ensuring high-quality data at scale while balancing cost, speed, and accuracy.

Read more about the partnership here: https://www.superannotate.com/blog/superannotate-nvidia

#SuperAnnotate #NVIDIA #SuccessStory

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EPIC 2025 Startup Pitch Competition in Hong Kong!

EPIC 2025 will take place in Hong Kong, one of Asia’s top startup ecosystems. EPIC provides access to investors, corporate partners, and the Greater Bay Area’s thriving market. Its main focus areas are: Digital Health Tech | FinTech | GreenTech

Prizes:
- Overall Champion: $60,000 USD
- Tech Track Winner: $20,000 USD
- Top 12 Finalists: $10,000 USD

Eligibility requirements:
- Your company is a registered business (for less than 10 years)
- You innovate in Digital Health Tech, FinTech, or GreenTech.
- Your company plans to expand its R&D and business operations to Hong Kong or the Greater Bay Area in mainland China.

Application Deadline: June 17, 2025 (23:59 GMT+8)
Find more details and apply 👉: https://epic.hkstp.org/

#EPIC #StartupPitchCompetition #HongKong #China #CashPrizes

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🚀 STAN Invests in a Stealth Startup Revolutionizing Engineering Workflows!

STAN announced its latest investment in a stealth startup that is transforming how engineering teams handle customer-reported issues. With AI-driven severity assessment, root cause analysis, and auto-fix suggestions, engineers can now focus on building the future rather than troubleshooting the past! 📈

This marks STAN’s 25th closed deal, and notably, this investment is made after the STAN’s Pitching Session in Los Angeles (Oct 2024).

🎉 Congratulations to STAN Angels and the startup on this milestone!

#STAN #AngelInvestment #SuccessStory #Investment

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Do you have a bold idea in the creative industries? Join the Vahé & Lucie Foundation Fellowship 2025 at Impact Hub Yerevan!

This one-year program offers workshops on entrepreneurship, branding, mentorship and more.
There will be a financial support for top-performing fellows.

Deadline: March 23, 2025, 11:59 PM
Apply now: https://forms.gle/XTDvMZn8UrqBMkdEA

Find more details here: https://yerevan.impacthub.net/vahe-and-lucie-foundation-fellowship-program-2025/

#ImpactHub #CreativeIndustries #ApplyNow

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We have made a list of the most successful Armenian startups – the ones from Series A to 🦄 unicorn level or those that have successfully IPO-ed. This list does not include exited startups such as LiveLOOK, Aarki, Integrien and others. We wanted to analyze the backgrounds of the founders to identify key patterns, and here is what we found.

Founder Background Patterns
1. Over 80% of the founders have a STEM background.
2. Around 80% of the founders had significant experience before starting their current startup. All founders without prior work experience studied abroad – such as Davit Buniatyan, who earned his PhD at Princeton, and the Petrosyan brothers, who were pursuing their PhDs when launching SuperAnnotate.
3. Over 70% of the founders have either studied, worked, or lived abroad before launching their startup. Many gained experience at top universities or global tech firms before returning to Armenia or founding their startups internationally.
4. Around half of the founders worked at a major tech company (Google, Microsoft, Oracle, Twilio, etc.) before launching their startup.
5. Over 40% are serial entrepreneurs, having founded or exited previous companies before their current venture.

Ripple Effects of Picsart
1. Picsart has been a major talent hub for the Armenian startup ecosystem: Founders of two startups (Podcastle, EasyDMARC) previously worked at Picsart.
2. Picsart was born from Sourcio (a company founded by Hovhannes Avoyan, which later exited). The founder of Hercules AI also previously worked at Sourcio.
3. Picsart was a workplace of much more startup founders who are not in the list.

Successful Founders Tend to Give Back
Arto Yeritsyan (Podcastle), Davit Baghdasaryan, and Arto Minasyan (Krisp) co-founded BigStory VC to support fellow founders and invest in the next generation of Armenian startups.

See the continuation below ⬇️:

See the beginning above ⬆️:

List of the Startups we Looked at

🦄 ServiceTitan (IPO-ed in Dec 2024):
- Vahe Kuzoyan: University of Southern California
- Ara Mahdessian: Stanford University

🦄 Picsart (Series C):
- Hovhannes Avoyan: CEO and Founder at Sourcio (acquired by HelpSystems), CEO and Founder at Monitis Inc. (acquired by TeamViewer/GFI Software), General Manager at Lycos Europe/Bertelsmann, VP and General Manager at Brience Armenia (acquired by Lycos/Bertelsmann), CEO/Founder at CEDIT (acquired by Brience)

CodeSignal (Series C):
- Tigran Sloyan: Partner Technology Manager at Google, CTO at KeyIdeas, Founder & CTO at Yevista, Applications Engineer at Oracle, Teaching Assistant at MIT

Britive (Series B)
- Artyom Poghosyan: Vice President, Managed IAM at Optiv Inc., Co-founder & CEO at Advancive Technology Solutions, Manager, Advisory Services at Ernst & Young LLP, Experienced Consultant, Technology Risk Services at Protiviti, Consultant at Arthur Andersen, Analyst - International Trade Finance at HSBC

SuperAnnotate (Series B)
- Tigran Petrosyan: PHD Candidate, Universität Bern
- Vahan Petrosyan: KTH Royal Institute of Technology, PhD in Machine Learning, Utah State University, Master of Science (MS), Statistics

Hercules AI (Series B):
- Gevorg Karapetyan: Senior Software Engineer at Imagenomic, Software Engineer at Sourcio

IntelinAir (Series B):
- Al Eisaian: Co-Founder & CEO at IconApps, Inc. (Acquired by Science, Inc.), Global Head of Product Strategy and Marketing at Opera Solutions, Executive Chairman, Co-Founder, CEO at Integrien Corporation (Acquired by VMWare), SVP and General Manager at LowerMyBills.com (Acquired by Experian), Associate Partner at USWeb Corporation, Business Unit Manager at NMB (USA) Inc.
- Naira Hovakimyan: Professor of Mechanical Science and Engineering at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Professor at Virginia Tech, Research Scientist at Armenian Academy of Sciences

SoloLearn (Series B):
- Yeva Hyusyan: Country Manager at Microsoft, CEO at Microsoft Innovation Center Armenia, Program Development Officer at USAID/Armenia
- Davit Kocharyan: Regional Technical Evangelist at Microsoft Armenia, Co-Founder, Executive Director at developWay, Senior Software Developer at Nork Information-Analytical Center, Head of Programming Division at CHS Vericel Service

Collectly (Series A):
- Levon Brutyan (YC W17): Regional Manager CIS & Eastern Europe at Creditreform, Lawyer at Schulze, Brutyan and partners, Project manager at DaimlerChrysler RUS, Junior Lawyer at Schulze, Brutyan and partners

ActiveLoop (Series A):
- Davit Buniatyan (YC S18): UCL (Bachelor of Computer Science), Princeton University (PhD, Computer Science)

Cognaize (Series A):
- Vahe Andonians: Founding Partner at Estating, Senior Lecturer at Frankfurt School of Finance & Management, Founder at SCDM

EasyDMARC (Series A):
- Gerasim Hovhannisyan: Director, IT infrastructure Operations at Picsart, Team Lead of Network Administration Group at Ameriabank, Administrator at Areximbank
- Avag Arakelyan: Technical Lead (Backend and Website) at Picsart, Senior Backend Developer at Synergy International Systems

Krisp (Series A):
- Davit Baghdasaryan: Head of Product Security at Twilio, Director, Advanced Technology at Nok Nok Labs (US), Security Architect, Sr. Software Engineer, Validity Sensors, Inc. (US), Software Architect, Hitegrity
- Arto Minasyan: CEO at Sticker Market, Inc., CEO at Web-Dorado (Armenia), Managing Partner at InfoExpert (Armenia)

Podcastle (Series A)
- Arto Yeritsyan: VP of Engineering at Picsart, Co-Founder at Coding Records, Technical Lead at Be2 (Germany)

Softr (Series A)
- Mariam Hakobyan: Head of Technology at Scout24 Group, Cohort Member BE2 at Entrepreneur First, Fellow at Included VC
- Arthur Mkrtchyan: Director of Engineering at Zalando, CTO/CPO, Collabary by Zalando, Director of Data and Analytics at GameGenetics, Software Engineering Team Lead at PayPal

#TopArmenianStartups #FounderProfiles #Patterns

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