How Armenia is trying to build a Silicon Valley in the Caucasus

In Armenia tech training begins early.

In a typical three-storey state college within the suburbs of Yerevan, the Armenian capital, nine-year previous Slavik is demonstrating his invention – a field with three LED lights.

“He has discovered the best way to management it, and the programming language. You’ll be able to see the code is written by him,” says Maria, the 21-year-old tech coach main the category.

Subsequent to them, 14-year-old Eric and Narek are exhibiting their good greenhouse mannequin that displays temperature and controls followers routinely by a cell app.

Different kids are enthusiastically showcasing their innovations: video games, robots, apps and good house initiatives.

Eleven-year-old Arakel is holding his cardboard mannequin of a home with a retractable clothesline.

“I’ve made my mom’s work simple, one a part of the gadget is ready on the roof, and one other is a motor,” he says. “When it rains the road goes beneath the roof to maintain the garments dry.”

These younger inventors have been attending engineering lab lessons the place they be taught programming, robotics, coding, 3D modelling and extra.

The programme began in 2014, and is known as Armath, which interprets into English as “root”. Right this moment there are 650 Armath labs in colleges throughout Armenia.

The initiative was established by a enterprise organisation known as the Union of Superior Expertise Enterprises (UATE), which represents greater than 200 high-tech Armenian firms.

“The imaginative and prescient is that we need to see Armenia changing into a tech centre powerhouse that delivers utmost values to Armenia and to the world,” says Sarkis Karapetyan, the chief government of UATE.

In his spacious, open-plan workplace in Yerevan he says that there at the moment are round 4,000 tech firms in Armenia.

Armath is a part of the UATE’s training and workforce improvement programme. Mr Karapetyan says the programme is essentially the most profitable public-private partnership within the nation.

“We elevate capital expenditure from the non-public sector, we go to the faculties and set up Armath labs, we donate the gear,” he says. “And the federal government, the training ministry offers us a finances of $2m (£1.5m) yearly to pay the salaries of the coaches.”

There at the moment are greater than 600 coaches, and 17,000 energetic college students.

“The aim is to have 5,000 of essentially the most gifted children determine to turn out to be engineers yearly,” says Mr Karapetyan.

Armenia is a landlocked nation of two.7 million folks, the smallest within the South Caucasus area, and its borders with neighbouring Azerbaijan and Turkey have been shut for many years as a consequence of unresolved territorial disputes.

Not like its neighbours, Armenia doesn’t have pure assets or entry to the ocean. However all through the Soviet period it had been a centre of arithmetic and laptop science.

In 1956 the Yerevan Scientific Analysis Institute of Mathematical Machines was established in Armenia and by 1960 it had developed two first era computer systems.

Right this moment, the nation is tapping into its legacy with the ambition to remodel itself into the tech powerhouse of the Caucasus.

And there was some success already. Picsart, a AI-powered photograph and video modifying web site and app, was launched in Armenia in 2011. Right this moment the corporate of the identical title, which has twin headquarters in Yerevan and Miami, is valued at $1.5bn.

Krisp, which makes audio-processing software program, and Service Titan, which gives enterprise software program, are different Armenian success tales.

In the meantime, an annual report says that Armenia is the very best nation within the Caucuses area during which to launch an organization, placing it in 57th place globally. This compares with Georgia in seventieth place, and Azerbaijan in eightieth.

A vital consider boosting Armenia’s tech improvement is the nation’s world diaspora – some 75% of the world’s estimated Armenians, and folks of Armenian descent, reside elsewhere.

This worldwide neighborhood gives essential connections, particularly within the US tech trade. Within the US there are as many as 1.6 million folks of Armenian ancestry, centred on California.

Samvel Khachikyan, is director of applications at SmartGate, a enterprise capital agency based mostly in each California and Armenia that focuses on tech investments.

He says that in case you have a look at the highest 500 firms within the US, “for certain you may discover no less than one or two Armenians” within the boardroom or one administration stage beneath.

Mr Khachikyan explains how his firm helps Armenian entrepreneurs arrange operations within the US.

“Think about an Armenian start-up, two younger folks deciding to go to the US to attempt to function there, they haven’t any connections, no information in regards to the tradition the way it works.

“It is gonna be exhausting, very exhausting. We’re serving to them, it is just like the launch of the rocket, the primary couple of seconds is the toughest.”

SmartGate takes Armenian founders to Silicon Valley and Los Angeles for intensive networking with high US firms and buyers.

However many Armenian start-ups first check their merchandise of their house market.

Irina Ghazaryan, is the founding father of an app known as Dr Yan that’s altering how Armenians entry healthcare by enabling them to extra simply ebook appointments with medical doctors.

Ms Ghazaryan was beforehand working in product and net design when, helped by the actual fact she comes from a household of medical doctors, she recognized a spot available in the market. “Sufferers could not discover the fitting medical doctors, and medical doctors had been affected by countless calls.”

The app operates on a subscription mannequin, with medical doctors paying to be listed on the platform, and there are plans to broaden.

“We’re rising no less than 25% income month by month,” provides Ms Ghazaryan. “We’re nearly break-even in Armenia and that provides us energy to start out increasing to different markets, like Uzbekistan.”

Armenia’s tech ecosystem acquired an sudden enhance in 2022 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 1000’s of Russian IT specialists left their nation, and lots of selected to settle in Armenia.

In the meantime, US chipmaking big Nvidia moved its Russian workplace to Armenia.

Vasily is a Russian IT guide who relocated to Armenia in 2023. “Armenia was essentially the most pleasant to folks from Russia to be able to assist them transfer, adapt and so forth,” he says.

He estimates that that the Russian IT neighborhood in Armenia now totals 5,000 to eight,000 folks. This inflow has stated to have stuffed essential talent gaps in Armenia’s tech sector, in areas similar to knowledge processing, cybersecurity, and monetary applied sciences.

But Vasily says that Armenia could be costly and the nation wants to scale back the tax burden on IT companies if it desires them to remain within the nation.

Nevertheless, total optimism stays excessive about Armenia’s tech future. Samvel Khachikyan expects the sector to increase. He factors to Service Titan, which floated on the New York Inventory Change final December, and is now value greater than $10bn.