5 Armenian start-ups link Armenians in the diaspora
The Armenian diaspora is of great importance to their motherland so, supporting, encouraging repatriation and the integration of returned Armenians to explore the potential of the Armenian diaspora worldwide is essential. Many initiatives, and start-ups started to push up and support this trend especially, as the Armenian repatriates and expatriates are still facing difficulties in finding access to direct and effective public service information.
1- A+ Academy
One of these startups is A+ Academy which offers Online Tutoring Classes for Diasporan Armenians with Armenia. Narek Shamamyan is the founder and the enlightened mind behind this great initiative.
The academy provides online private and group classes on Math, Coding, Sciences, Eastern and Western Armenian Language, Armenian History, Armenian Culture and Traditions, English, Russian, Arabic, and many more. Most of the classes are available in both English and Armenian. The tutors come from all over Armenia and have been selected based on their skills, knowledge, and professionalism.
2- reArmenia
reArmenia is a collaboration platform uniting Armenia and Armenians around the globe through knowledge, professional experience, and material support. It is a Non-Governmental & Nonprofit Organization concerned about the problems of the homeland raising issues related to 14 spheres or coming up with proper solutions.
The highest management and control body of reArmenia consists of 5 members:
- David Hakobyan — Advisor to the minister of high-tech industry of Armenia and Chairman of the Board.
- Greg Bedian — Director, Tufenkian Foundation and Board member.
- Armine Mkrtchyan — CEO, Merakipal and Board member.
- Narek Vardanyan — CEO, TheCrowd Funding Formula, and Board member.
- Mariam Hambardzumyan — President, GlobalAm and Board member.
Also, it is the first Armenian platform committed not only to fundraising for existing initiatives but also to bringing together those passionate about new projects to create teams and providing a framework for teams already working to invite new collaborators.
Nicholas Cabraloff- an investment analyst at Whale Rock Capital Management- and Chris Abkarians-co-founder of Juno fintech- who graduated from Harvard Business School, designed and launched this initiative to give a fresh boost to the development of Armenia’s technological community, by helping Armenian start-ups with rich experience and knowledge of ethnic Armenian ICT specialists living in the USA. And to achieve that a mentoring platform has been created to unite Armenian IT entrepreneurs and stimulate the development of technologies in Armenia. Both mentors and entrepreneurs will be able to communicate and cooperate, as well as receive advice.
The project is built on the Slack platform, which allows the creation of different groups by topic, for example, finance, sales and marketing, strategy, legal issues, human resources, and more. Participation is free, just fill out an application on the website, indicate your data, links to Linkedin, and a short description of the business.
4- Hye box
Living and rising in a small but historically and culturally rich country with different global and local challenges, allowed the twins Elen and Elmira Gabrielyan, to found their start-up about two and a half years ago. It started as a gift box with Armenian crafts and books for children then turned into a family box. They deliver homeland-made products to the US, Canada, Europe, and Australia.
The main purpose remained the same: to work with small businesses, entrepreneurs, artisans, and artists and allow the diaspora to keep in touch culturally with Armenia, discover Armenian products and support the Armenian economy which has never been this fun.
It is a part of a global network of locally operated impact innovation incubators, accelerators, coworking spaces, and nonprofit organizations that collectively own and govern Impact Hub Company, based in Austria. It connects entrepreneurs and innovators, as well as large organizations, investors, and the public sector, to enable inclusive and sustainable innovation at scale and to tackle challenges through collaboration.
The hub takes impactful initiatives from the idea stage to implementation, through many programs like:
- PRAGUE CIVIL SOCIETY CENTRE / IMPACT HUB YEREVAN / SUSTAINABILITY THROUGH SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP —
- SOCIAL IMPACT AWARD 2021
- ZARTIR FELLOWSHIP 2021
•NAGORNO KARABAKH ENTREPRENEURSHIP INCUBATION PROGRAM
Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com.
