Sun, 27 Apr 2025

Sun, 27 Apr 2025 How Armenia is trying to build a Silicon Valley in the Caucasus

The country is aiming to boost its technology sector by training children in tech from a young age.

* Armenia starts teaching tech education at an early age: children as young as 9 learn programming, robotics and coding.
* The country's Armath program has established over 650 engineering labs in schools across Armenia since its launch in 2014.
* The initiative was created by the Union of Advanced Technology Enterprises (UATE), a business organization representing over 200 Armenian high-tech companies.
* UATE's CEO Sarkis Karapetyan says the goal is to make Armenia a tech powerhouse, with 5,000 students becoming engineers every year.
* Armenia has a legacy in mathematics and computer science, dating back to the Soviet era, when it developed its first computers in the early 1960s.
* The country has seen success stories such as Picsart, an AI-powered photo editing website worth $1.5 billion, Krisp, which makes audio-processing software, and Service Titan, a business software provider.
* Armenia's global diaspora is also playing a crucial role in boosting its tech development, with many Armenian entrepreneurs setting up companies abroad.
* The country has received a boost from Russian IT specialists fleeing the war in Ukraine, who are now settling in Armenia to help fill skill gaps in areas such as data processing and cybersecurity.
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