Speakers – Khachatur Grigoryan – CEO & Co-Founder ggTaxi
Yervand Sarkisyan – Cofounder partner, Granatus Ventures
Topic – ggTaxi – a successful Startup case and how to raise a Venture Capital in Armenia.
7:30 PM
Question/Answers session
Khachatur Grigorian, CEO & Co-Founder of ggTaxi, and Yervand Sarkisyan, Co-Founder partner, Granatus Ventures will speak about how they established ggTaxi using venture capital (VC) funds. A Question & Answer session will follow their presentation.
ggTaxi
ggTaxi is an app-based taxi service platform that was established in 2013 serving thousands of customers. The app is becoming increasingly popular in Armenia and is changing the way people perceive taxi services. The company plans further expansion in Armenia and the region.
The company is one of the fastest growing Armenian startups. It has secured US$200,000 in seed financing. Armenia-based VC fund Granatus Ventures led the round with co-investment from US-based serial entrepreneur and angel investor Suren Markosian (founder of Epic! CrowdStar, List.am). The company also secured a Deal Generation Matching Grant of US$50,000 from the Government of the Republic of Armenia within the framework of the World Bank’s E-Society and Innovation for Competitiveness (EIC) Project.
Granatus Ventures
Granatus Ventures is the first venture capital firm to provide investment, expertise, and networks to startups worldwide that leverage Armenia’s potential as an emerging technology hub.
Yervand Sarkisyan is a tech entrepreneur and investor based in London. He has co-founded Agnian, a digital design and development firm with offices in London and Yerevan. Yervand has worked closely with the founders of tech and media startups, including Sedition, a digital arts platform representing world leading contemporary artists, Saatchi Art, the world’s leading online art gallery, and State.com, a company set up to democratize opinion sharing.
Sarkisyan has been engaged in the development of the Armenian tech sector for more than a decade. Working at Enterprise Incubator Foundation, he helped seed and advised several Armenian IT companies. He has also served as an advisor to George Soros Foundation on media, technology and publishing projects.
Sarkisyan holds a Master in Finance with Distinction from London Business School. He has studied mathematics at Yerevan State University and computer science at American University of Armenia, affiliated with the University of California. He was awarded the Coller Institute of Private Equity prize in 2011.