Good day, dear readers! Thanks to your feedback on the IT industry in Armenia, the idea emerged to create another publication that will provide a comprehensive answer about the real practices of IT specialists in the South Caucasian state. In this publication, I will introduce you to the 'luminaries' of Armenia, who not only live and work within the country but are also actively increasing the volumes of startups, developments, and ideas, including for entry into international markets.
Overview of IT in Armenia – key achievements and renowned specialists
Having reviewed the remarks of the respected , who confidently stated in the comments to the previous article about IT in Armenia: 'Everyone I knew has already left Armenia,' as well as feedback from other readers, I decided to compile a short list of real IT professionals. The specialists listed below, along with young teams formed around them, including recent graduates of Armenian universities, are successfully working and developing their potential in Armenia and are unlikely considering relocating to Europe or any other country. So, let’s get started:
Hovhannes Avoyan – entrepreneur, investor, and scholar who is a co-founder and CEO of PicsArt (a social image editing app). He also served as president of the Union of Information Technology Enterprises of Armenia (UITE) from its establishment in 2000 until 2015. Ovanes Avoyan graduated from the State Engineering University of Armenia with a bachelor's degree in computer science in 1987 and obtained a master's degree from the American University of Armenia in 1997. In 2011, together with his friend Artavazd Mekhrapyan, he founded PicsArt – a social startup for photo editing. Today, PicsArt has over 100 million active users worldwide. In 2015–2016, the company raised $45 million from Sequoia Capital, Insight Venture Partners, and other international companies. PicsArt employs over 400 people, with its headquarters located in San Francisco. In 2016, Avoyan received an award for outstanding achievement from the American University of Armenia. In 2005, he participated in the Bertelsmann executive program at Harvard Business School. Ovanes supports the development of artificial intelligence in Armenia, creating schools and best practices in the country to elevate the achievements of the IT industry in Armenia to a global level. Ovanes Avoyan advocates for the establishment of Machine Learning and artificial intelligence schools and is the author of many works on AI.
Briefly about Avoyan:
- 1996 – founded CEDIT, a software development company (acquired by Brience in 2000);
- 2005 – founded and served as CEO of Sourcio – a provider of software development and system integration services (acquired by HelpSystems);
- Since 2007 – founder and CEO of Monitis Inc. (acquired by TeamViewer/GFI Software);
- 2011 – founded PicsArt, a social image editing application that currently has more than 90 million active users monthly, employs over 400 staff, and has its headquarters in San Francisco.
Vaan Kerobyantsi – Executive Director of Menu Group UK LTD since October 2017 to present. Menu Group UK LTD is an online enterprise engaged in the delivery of flowers and drinks to restaurants in the Caucasus and Eastern Europe. Kerobyan obtained his education at Yerevan State University (graduating with honors in Mathematics, years of study – 1993-1998). Currently, he is involved in the development and promotion of Menu Group projects in Georgia and Belarus.
Ara Mahdesyan and Vahe Kuzoyan – are co-founders of ServiceTitan, a company that develops software for managing home service businesses, enabling an increase in potential client flow and sales. Over the course of its operation, the company has raised over $370 million (with a total investment valuation of $1.6 billion) from investors such as Bessemer Venture Partners, Index Ventures, ICONIQ Capital, Battery Ventures, I2BF Global Ventures, and the Dragoneer investment group.
Co-founder and CEO of ServiceTitan, Ara Mahdesyan, is a graduate of Stanford University, holding a degree in Management Science and Engineering. Mahdesyan first applied his experience in design, sales, and IT expertise to help ServiceTitan become a leading provider of software for home service professionals.
As sons of contractors involved in residential construction, Ara Mahdesyan, together with co-founder and President of ServiceTitan, Vahe Kuzoyan, established ServiceTitan, which has made managing a growing home service business convenient and efficient, while also helping thousands of other companies streamline their services. Ara Mahdesyan is also involved in charity at Children's Hospital Los Angeles.
Vahe Kuzoyan is responsible for defining the company's overall product strategy, overseeing the development and release of new products, as well as enhancing the user experience and analytics of the platform. He holds a bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Neurobiology, and Business Administration from the University of Southern California.
Gor Vardanyan – Founder and Technical Director of Fimetech LLC and the Chessify startup for professional chess players. Fimetech LLC specializes in a wide range of IT fields, from Machine Learning to compiler development. Gor Vardanyan is a board member of YerevaNN, the Armenian Association of Quality Assurance Professionals, and an associate professor at the Russian-Armenian University. He has been lecturing at Yerevan State University and RAU on discrete mathematics and machine learning for over 7 years. Notable contributions in the IT field:
- the Chessify startup (https://chessify.me);
- membership in the board of directors of YerevaNN – a world-class research nonprofit laboratory for artificial intelligence in Armenia;
- ML program for the master's degree at RAU;
- founder of the AI/CV consulting company;
- co-founder and Technical Director of the Internal Positioning Systems (IPS) company, providing social and commercial services based on IPS.
Arman Atayan – co-founder and CEO of ARLOOPA since August 2014. The company specializes in the development of augmented and virtual reality games and applications. Since October 2008, Atayan has been the founder and creative director of X-TECH, which originally focused on web development and later shifted towards Kinect, advanced game development, and mobile applications. The team has won numerous regional and Armenian competitions: Microsoft Imagine Cup, Startup bootcamps, NASA's Space Apps Challenge. The company is located in the USA and Austria with a TECH LAB in Armenia.
Detailed information about Atayan .
Gevorq Safaryan – founder and CEO of EarlyOne, a company developing software for managing customer flows. This is a team of top professionals working in the field of innovative queue and visitor flow management systems for implementation in the banking sector, healthcare, and financial organizations, as well as government agencies and telecommunications. The application allows users to reserve a place in the queue remotely and is equipped with monitoring and reporting tools to optimize resources and enhance customer service quality (available in Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, and expanding globally to Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, and other countries).
Safaryan is also the founder and CEO of Limetech, educated at YSU (Bachelor of Economics) and the American University of Armenia in the Business Management Faculty.
Currently:
- President of the Student Union of the Faculty of Economics at YSU;
- Member of the Academic Council of the Faculty of Economics at YSU;
- Board member of Yerevan State University.
Armen Kocharyan – co-founder and CEO of VOLO LLC since June 2006. The company has established itself as an absolute leader in the IT industry of Armenia in creating technological stacks in the following areas:
- corporate software innovations;
- mobile application development;
- Internet of Things;
- AI & Machine Learning;
- cybersecurity and DevOps;
- cryptography and encryption.
VOLO holds a list of security certifications including ISO-27001 and ISO-9001: 2008. The team possesses a high level of expertise and competence in Microsoft technologies (almost all company developers are Microsoft certified).
Kocharyan has also worked as a lecturer at the International Center for Agribusiness Research and Education in the Department of Internet Marketing and E-commerce, as a software development department head, and as a shareholder of NATK (participated in and managed EDram Internet Payment System and IT outsourcing for the company). Other professional activities include:
- Tromsø Telemedicine Laboratory (researcher);
- University Hospital of North Norway (researcher);
- NairiSoft Inc – software developer;
- Armentel JSC – software developer;
- Vimpelcom - telecommunications engineer;
- National survey of seismic protection - IT specialist.
Learn more about Armen Kocharyan .
Georg Poghosyan is the founder of the largest and first electronic payment system Idram in Armenia. He is also the author of the projects GlobalR.com and RegNest.com (domain registration service providers) and is a co-founder of TheCrowdfundingFormula.com (a leading consulting company in crowdfunding). Poghosyan is also a co-founder and president of the NGO GlobalAM, an organization that helps Armenian startups reach a global level.
Since 2016, Georg Poghosyan has been a member of the board of the public organization Armenian Internet Society, actively promoting the growth of Armenian startups in the online business sector worldwide. Since 2017, he has held the position of CDO (Chief Digital Officer) at Veon Armenia.
Khachatur Grigoryan has been a co-founder of the company GG since April 2014. From May 2012 to 2016, he was the founder and CEO of GGLaboratories, previously served as a product manager at Altacode (2011-2012), and also worked as a software developer at SystroTech. Grigoryan holds a Master's degree from the State Engineering University of Armenia.
The company GG was founded in 2014 and is the leading transportation platform in Armenia, Georgia, and Russia, with over 100,000 regular clients. GGTeam provides professional support and a personalized approach to meet each client's logistics and freight transportation needs.
More information about him can be found .
Artavazd Minasyan has been a co-founder of Krisp since October 2017. The modern development of Krisp is a program that recognizes and eliminates background noise during calls in real-time. This means the interlocutor hears only the clear voice. The technology allows for local sound cleaning (directly on the device). Krisp adds an additional software layer between the real microphone/speaker and video conferencing applications. The software either generates an opposite sound wave to neutralize noise (active noise cancellation) or simply prevents the noise from being heard (passive noise cancellation).
Minasyan is also a co-founder of 10Web.io, which offers the best solutions and tools for easy management, optimization, and support of websites built on the WordPress engine. Additionally, 10Web.io is:
- site creation and setup using Elementor with the company’s premium widgets;
- free automatic migration to 10Web managed hosting, with speed improvements of up to 5 times.
Artavazd Minasyan graduated from Yerevan State University (Bachelor's in Physics, followed by Master's and PhD in Mathematics), and studied at the American University of Armenia from 2010 to 2014, obtaining a Master of Business Administration (MBA). More information can be found at .
I have only 'touched' a small number of specialists and engineers rapidly advancing their IT careers in Armenia, not including mid-level staff and interns just beginning their journey in the IT industry. However, the above list speaks for itself – Armenia is one of the few countries in the post-Soviet space where the IT sector is developing rapidly, and all the necessary material and technical conditions for further development have been established.
IT in Armenia and real relocation – what about housing?
Now let's address the second 'pressing' question regarding housing and the cost of residential real estate if an IT specialist decides to fully relocate to Armenia and develop their skills, pursuing education in Yerevan (for example, let's take the capital, which attracts the most attention from foreigners). Here I've prepared only current offers with final prices for housing, allowing IT specialists relocating in the near future to select housing and even conduct a purchase or rental transaction remotely.
Let’s start with verified and reliable real estate agency websites:
- ‘AKSERN’ with a user-friendly website , where you can find housing for short-term, long-term rental, or purchase. Clients can choose options down to the street in specific areas of Yerevan;
- an informational project with real photographs of properties taken with professional cameras;
- Real Estate Market (myrealty.am) – here you can find all types of real estate, including land plots, spaces for warehouses, offices, or production, and even mansions;
- the largest independent platform in Armenia Bnakaran – website , where special offers are constantly updated, allowing you to rent absolutely everything – from small studio apartments daily to spacious mansions and penthouses;
- the real estate agency VIVA REALTY (website ) – here users simply need to contact the staff and express their needs, then it's up to the company's personnel to promptly find suitable housing (for short-term, monthly, or long-term rental, or purchase).
By the way, it's quite logical to buy real estate in Armenia for the purpose of further speculation – even if you have to leave Armenia for some reason, prices for residential properties are constantly rising here. The highest demand and the highest prices are for real estate in the Kentron administrative district, which is the city center (on average 590,000 Armenian drams per 1 sq. m.). At the same time, the cheapest properties for purchase can be found in the Nubarashen area – averaging 170,000 drams per 1 sq. m. (approximately 356 USD, which is not a problem for a good IT specialist, right?). Furthermore, Yerevan features relatively low prices for essential goods and groceries, meaning the local income of an IT specialist allows not just for a good living but also for acquiring assets, traveling, and enjoying life.
Rental prices for housing in Armenia – a brief overview
Not every IT specialist coming to Armenia will immediately buy housing, you may say. Absolutely right, I do not dispute this fact – purchasing housing is a serious matter that requires certain study and far-reaching plans. Therefore, it makes perfect sense to explore rental options.
By the way, the mentioned real estate agencies are professional companies with properties verified for 'legal purity,' where the risk of double leasing is definitely non-existent.
Now let's talk about rental prices – in the center of Yerevan, a two-bedroom apartment with modern renovation and a full set of appliances and furniture, along with a fitted bathroom, will currently cost around 240,000 Armenian drams (approximately 500 USD). By the way, the price decreases (and significantly) when there is no furniture and other amenities (like appliances). If you're looking for a more affordable apartment without compromising square meters and comfort, you can find options in the Erebuni area – it has excellent transport connections to any part of Yerevan, but prices are much lower. For example, you can rent a furnished studio apartment of up to 40-50 sq. m. for only 90,000-120,000 Armenian drams (approximately 188-250 USD) per month.
In this article, I've tried to provide the most comprehensive information on the practices in the IT sector operating in Armenia, as well as regarding the rental and purchase of housing. This information definitely does not resemble a "conference manual", but I am fully open to new questions and ideas. Perhaps your comments will continue to inspire me to create new publications where I can share important facts about the IT world in Armenia with my dear readers.
Source: habr.com
