The EWC Armenia 2022 National Finals took place on August 13th at the American University of Armenia, where 12 startup teams pitched to become the representatives of Armenia in the EWC Global Finals. The startups competing in various categories were: Idea Stage — WhatToWear.ai, Bicoentric, Traps Analytics; Early Stage — Anania, Basis, manot, HopShop, Uteach, Text’nPayMe; Growth Stage — Lemonade Fashion, doodooc, LiveBoard.
The event opened with an inspirational keynote address by Hayk Chobanyan, CEO of the Union of Advanced Technology Entreprises. The opening ceremony featured speeches by the Global Entrepreneurship Network President Jonathan Ortmans, AUA Provost Dr. Brian A. Ellison, and AUA Professor and Director of EPIC Dr. Michael Kouchakdjian. A panel of representatives from the local startup ecosystem then debated how to accelerate the maturing process of Armenia’s startup ecosystem.
Serving on the National Finals jury were Deputy Minister of High-Tech Industry of the Republic of Armenia Dr. Davit Sahakyan, Founding Partner at Strategic Value Ventures Karen Gyulbudaghyan, Managing Director at ServiceTitan Armenia Ashot Tonoyan, International Expert at the European Union Innovative Tourism and Technology Development for Armenia (ITTD) Project Christian Schellenberger, and CEO of the National Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship Dr. Hayk Margarian.
Based on the decision of the independent jury of the EWC Armenia 2022 National Finals, two Armenian startups, Text’nPayMe and Hopshop, won the first place and will represent Armenia in the EWC 2022 Global competition. They will compete for a chance to win $1 million in prizes.
In addition to getting the EWC trophy, both winning teams received a prize of $10,000 from the sponsors of the event.
Text’nPayMe is a banking keyboard that enables bank clients to send money by way of any messaging application or other application that contains an input field.
Hopshop is Shazam for fashion. It helps customers find and purchase clothes or accessories that are available on the Internet and social media and even those they might spot others wearing on the street.
From over 110 submitted applications, 99 startup teams had passed the initial screening stage, and 34 were later selected as semifinalists. Of those, the jury picked 12 startups to advance to the National Finals. Over 60 judges from Armenia and abroad played a central role in the evaluation stages of the competition.