The meetings of the Armenian delegation in Istanbul on February 26 can be conveyed with the following translation of the Russian popular proverb: we saw and were seen. The 12-member Armenian delegation first of all made study tours to Istanbul’s prestigious incubator in ITU Technopark (Monitise and Solvoyo companies), Fit Startup Factory, as well as to one of the most successful start-up companies in Turkey: Yemeksepeti.com. The representatives of our companies demonstrated their own programs too. Briefly, about the Turkish side at first. The Monitise company founded in 2003 is the mobile technology implementer of the world advanced Mobile Money and provide secure mobile financial services in the Chinese and Asian markets, including Japan, Australia and so on. Monitise has created the world’s first mobile banking, payments and commercial ecosystem. Solvoyo company founded in 2005 is an international software company which operates in Boston so as in Istanbul.
And now about the programs that the Armenian delegates presented at the Fit Startup Factory helping startup entrepreneurs reach success who run innovative business ideas based on their technologies. The Armenian delegation member, Director of Lion Sharp Nigel Sharp presented the Voiceboard application, which enables you to demonstrate your own work through interactive solution. The Designing Home Planning startup was presented by its founder Mihran Babayan. The investors were mostly interested in the program on the eye sight examination and health maintenance of the vision presented by Vice President of Sourcio IT Consulting Company Pavel Snkhchyan. Well, when the PanARMENIAN network communications and corporate affairs officer Arpine Grigoryan presented the application of Shadowmatic puzzle of Triada Studio Games, which was although launched only in January this year, but has already two hundred thousand downloads in the Apple Store and is recognized as one of the best, the investors noticed that they have already achieved the success and do not need investments. The investors immediately began playing Shadowmatic.
To the question of “Aravot” that given the fact that Shadowmatic is actually an established project, so what expectations she had from this meeting, Arpine Grigoryan replied, “First of all I wanted to present our experience and success to show them the quality of games played in Armenia. Also I was curious what questions they will ask and what their attention will be more focused on. And indeed, they made interesting comments, they told that the game cam eventually appear on the Xbox and Playstation platforms.” Deputy Director of the Union of Information Technology Enterprises Hayk Chobanyan, in response to our question of whether these meetings in terms of sharing of experiences were useful, replied, “First, our sphere is universal, in other words, it is not so much important whether it is Armenian, Turkish or German. Indeed, there are also specifications. Secondly, we are located in a region, and our interests and priorities may coincide. Being in one region, we are more competitive and we need to think about our competitiveness.”
To the additional question of whether the resources of Armenia and Turkey in this respect are comparable, Hayk Chobanyan replied, “In fact, our countries are quite different, first of all, by the market size. Their companies are more oriented towards the domestic market and it is normal. Their potentials in this respect are much bigger. However, we had quite a lot educational meetings, especially with regard to infrastructure. And it seems to me that the processes which are launched today in Armenia with regard to business development and start-up promotions, communicating with such practices is very important for us. And what we saw could be useful.”
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Anna ISRAELYAN
Istanbul
In the photo – Arpine Grigoryan presents the Shadowmatic puzzle
