On May 3, 2017 around 100 participants representing the private and public sector, business associations, companies and individuals attended the event to discuss the support for financing innovative companies in Armenia. Financing opportunities such as the early stage financing and investments options, including crowdfunding across borders; seed funding and matching of ecosystem grants; business angel investment and venture capital were discussed.
The event continued with panel discussions on exposing Armenian startups to international markets.
SmartGateVC partner Hambardzum Kaghketsyan was in panel moderated by Peer Priewich, Adviser at GIZ, together with Bagrat Yengibaryan (Enterprise Incubator Foundation), Vahan Chakarian (Technology and Science Dynamics), and Christian Schellenberger (BerlinerStrategen, Berlin). Hambardzum's key message was on importance of development of university research infrastructure in Armenia and its link to the startup ecosystem.
SmartGateVC partner Ashot Arzumanyan was in panel moderated by Mark Davis, the head of EBRD Yerevan office, together with Maurice Beckand Verwee (Crosspring, Netherlands), and Urmas Peiker (Funderbeam, Estonia). Ashot's key message was that Armenia lacks locally based brave and proactive seed venture capital, which could not only work with the teams to take them to the next level, but also serve as lead investor to attract other foreign VCs to the deals with companies focusing global and regional markets.