ARMENIA STARTUP ACADEMY
Armenia Startup Academy, a cutting-edge pre-acceleration programme will be launched on October 16, 2017. The programme aims to build a game-changing entrepreneurship and startup education and evangelise the startup culture in Armenia. The programme is intended to boost Armenian tech companies and teams to sharpen their skills for creating products that customers love.
Armenia Startup Academy is a Catalyst Foundation project implemented in the framework of the Support to SME Development (SMEDA) Project, which is co-funded by the European Union and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and implemented by GIZ’s Private Sector Development in South Caucasus Programme.
The Academy will be launched on October 16, 2017 following the selection and interviewing process of applicants. Up to 15 startups will be selected for the first cycle and trained for a duration of 12 weeks. The academy offers a high quality programme incorporating innovative instruments, methods and topics as well as access to a pool of high-profile mentors to facilitate the business success of participating startups.
Apart from an advanced training curriculum the current state and basic needs of each team will be reviewed by the instructors and a fully tailored programme for them developed. Local and international mentors and guest-speakers will deliver talks and lectures as well as consult the teams during the programme keeping the utmost focus on the business development of the projects. Thereby, the teams have the opportunity to acquire hands-on experience in all knowledge areas that are crucial for the startups’ future growth, customer and product development. Furthermore, the programme includes weekly review meetings, evaluations and regular demo-pitching sessions to analyse the progress and review plans. The programme is highly demanding and teams that demonstrated the most progress in the dynamic trainings and performed well on the demo-sessions will have access to a pool of potential investors and will be prepared to apply to global and regional acceleration programmes.
The call for applications for the Academy will be open on September 29, 2017 until October 10, 2017. The Armenian startups and startup teams who would like to improve and build on their skills and capacities and become more competitive in the startup ecosystem are encouraged to apply.
Catalyst Foundation is established by the founding partners of SmartGateVC aiming for taking at upgrading the Armenian startup ecosystem to the next level and contributing to the creation of a powerful pipeline of Armenian companies able to develop globally successful products.
For media inquiries, please contact Catalyst Foundation, email: info@catalyst.am, or SMEDA Project, email: info@giz.de.