Over the last decades, the startup scene has bloomed in Armenia, reaching heights that previously seemed unattainable. Armenian startups are not limited to one particular field or category. They are spread across various sectors ranging from creative content creation and marketing to medicine, blockchain technology and artificial intelligence. As someone who took several entrepreneurship courses during my undergraduate studies at New York University Abu Dhabi and who has worked with American and Norwegian startups over the last couple of years, I was beyond excited to return to my home country and start exploring the local startup scene. It was with great surprise and excitement that I found out that some of the major players in the international startup arena are in fact of Armenian origin, and many others are confidently on the path to acquiring international markets.
This article on VOLO provides a valuable list of successful Armenian startups, with concise yet comprehensive descriptions. According to the article, one of the most successful Armenian startups is Picsart — the first unicorn in Armenia to hit a billion-dollar valuation without being listed on the stock market. The various tools of this all-in-one platform are used by over 150 million active users to create compelling content for businesses and individuals. Another fantastic Armenian startup is Renderforest, a platform that enables non-designers to design whatever their creativity suggests. Renderforest is trusted by over 20 million users and more than 100,000 high-end companies across the globe. Other important players include 10web, Podcastle, Super Annotate, ARLOOPA and numerous others.
Shant Abramyan’s article in VOLO notes, “Armenia is no longer just an outsourcing hotspot but a center of innovation in the global market. There are many top-name companies that have branches in Armenia, but more and more entrepreneurs are opening their own startups to provide solutions for their respective markets.” Abramyan mentions some of the possible reasons why Armenian startups are so successful, including our large pool of tech talent and history of noteworthy astrophysicists and chess grandmasters.
My curiosity pushed me to look further into our formula for success and interview the founder of ITResources Armenia David Shahbazyan as well as the Head of Sales and Marketing Grigor Sevumyan. I was recently invited to use my experience in international environments and the UAE, in particular, to help ITResources prepare for Expand North Star Dubai — the world’s largest startup and investor connector event. The event features major events such as GITEX Impact, Fintech Surge, Future Blockchain Summit and Marketing Mania. It is inspired by the world’s largest and best-rated tech event, GITEX GLOBAL. According to Sevumyan, the event is a great opportunity for the Armenian company to network with multinational industry leaders, engage in discussions on the latest investment trends and find potential collaboration opportunities that can benefit not only the company and its clients but Armenia as a whole.
Today ITResources is preparing to participate in the world’s largest startup and investor connector event, but the company has been on a difficult road to get to where it is today. Shahbazyan, the founder of the IT company, is not an IT professional himself. “At first, whenever I had a new idea for a digital product, I would look to outsource the development, searching for an IT company capable of turning my vision into reality. Over time, I realized that it would be so much better to have my own team that would build useful digital products for individuals and businesses. I wanted to build a team of experts who would take care of all aspects of product and service development, ranging from ideation and consultation to product launch and maintenance. I had this vision which I was so passionate about, and after a few months, my company was up and running,” Shahbazyan said.
He remembers sleeping only three hours a day for four years while establishing the company and working another full-time job. He transported the office’s first desks and computers in his car and fit 27 staff members in a 27-square-meter office space. “My company’s first successful IT project was the creation of an application and a media portal for the Ministry of Defense of Armenia. It was a moment of happiness and encouragement for me and my team who had worked so hard to craft something valuable and lasting for our homeland,” he said.
“Then, one day, I accidentally ran into a childhood friend. When he learned about my vision, he mentioned having connections across various sectors in Armenia — people who were actively seeking IT services for upcoming projects. He offered to help me get in touch with these people. This accidental encounter proved to be a life-changing moment both for me and my company. I soon received an exciting IT project request from one of his contacts, which opened the door to a series of successful collaborations and innovative digital ventures. My team and I would successfully finish one project, rumors about the good quality of our service would then spread by word of mouth, and more and more offers and collaboration proposals would come to us. It was all about the power of friendship, networking, diligence, quality and reputation,” Shahbazyan continued.
Over time, Shahbazyan’s company became the brains behind projects including the installation of traffic cameras all across Armenia, the platform for civil service entrance examination, the migration and citizenship services platform (which proved particularly useful following the exodus of Armenians from Artsakh) and many other software and hardware projects that keep the Armenian state running today. Over the past couple of years, ITResources has served and supported hundreds of state and non-state clients in Armenia with wide-ranging services such as web design, software development, CRM and business automation. ITResources itself is not considered a startup, but it does build startup projects that are used by state and non-state actors in Armenia and soon beyond.
To my question of how Armenian startups reach new heights and why we even create so many startups, Shahbazyan answered that it’s a matter of national character. “We as a nation do not put up with life conditions that do not satisfy us. We want to live better, and we fight for a better life. We take risks. We create. When I was starting, I had many issues, from financial to staffing issues to aggressive competitors and much more, but I didn’t give up. I kept fighting. Today, people choose my company, because we always deliver what and when we promise and don’t drop our quality over time. Today we are on our way to diversify our portfolio and acquire new, international horizons,” he said.
Shahbazyan added that fighting and creating have been important character traits not just in managing ITResources but also throughout his younger years. “Even during my teenage years, I was always involved in the production, import and export of different products and services. I found my joy and excitement in that active lifestyle of constantly experimenting with wide-ranging businesses and endeavors. I failed, I succeeded, I lost, I won. I did so many different things and enjoyed the process. It was always in my character,” he said.
Sevumyan added that the large number of Armenian startups and their resounding success are also a result of incorporating digital education at private and public schools in Armenia. “Even though Armenia is a relatively small market, and there are numerous limits and boundaries to physical and economic mobility, the digital world enables young people to enter the international market, cooperate with clients globally and expand their potential. In other words, the digital space is not limited by physical boundaries, and anyone can enter and succeed in the digital world regardless of their actual physical location. A young entrepreneur living in a village can suddenly generate sales leads in a country thousands of miles away, and that, coupled with the wide availability and accessibility of relevant formal and informal educational materials, encourages one to get involved in the IT sector and start their small personal project,” Sevumyan said.
When asked whether the unprecedented, fast-paced development of AI helps or damages the current state of Armenian startup and IT scenes, Sevumyan told me that, as with every other tool, AI also comes with its advantages and disadvantages. “If we use it in the right way, it has the great potential to help us. If we use it in the wrong way, it will lead to significant damage,” Sevumyan said. He added that one of the main advantages of AI is that it reduces the need for manual work that is redundant, robotic and repetitive. “It takes care of the redundant tasks, thereby allowing employees to focus on more meaningful and often creative aspects of their work,” he said. The potential downside, according to Sevumyan, is that it might lead to laziness, as people are starting to rely on AI to generate ideas while disregarding their own creativity and resourcefulness.
We will observe with time whether AI will help or damage the local and international startup scenes. But for now, I’m even more excited to see how yet another Armenian company shines in the international scene and shows the world that our nation keeps working, fighting and creating regardless of all possible confines and circumstances.
Milena Baghdasaryan
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Armenia is a rich country in culture and history. Armenia is on my bucket list .
What an informative and optimistic article.
It reflects the entrepreneurial instincts being applied to modern technologies. With many of these efforts I have found a combination of good business instincts integrated with core patriotism…. Wanting to add value to the quality of life in the country.