UNDP in Armenia is delighted to announce that ImpactAIM ANAU AgriTech Accelerator was officially launched on June 9, during a Facebook live event. It featured a webinar on the Impact of Frontier Technologies on Agriculture introduced by the leading specialists of the field:

·       Vardan Urutyan | Rector ANAU - Moderator

·       Arman Khojoyan | Deputy Minister of Economy 

·       Dmitry Mariyasin | UNDP Resident Representative in Armenia

·       Armen Orujyan | FAST Founding CEO

·       Armen Harutyunyan | UNDP Singapore Senior Advisor

·       Paolo Spantigati | ADB Country Director for Armenia

The aim of the discussion was to give the accelerator participants a general understanding on the challenges that exist in agriculture and how innovative technologies can be leveraged to solve them.

“In UNDP, we believe there is no better way to solve tomorrow’s problems than with applying tomorrow’s thinking to the developing reality in countries like Armenia. For this we need platforms where people from various walks of life will come together and we need to put together 3 elements which are very important: technology, finance and deep understanding of what challenges the countries face. In this particular case, AgriTech is part of a broader ImpactAIM acceleration program of UNDP focusing on the challenges that Armenia and other countries face around the world,” said UNDP Resident Representative in Armenia Dmitry Mariyasin.

ImpactAIM ANAU AgriTech Accelerator received over 150 applications, out of which 50 budding entrepreneurs and 15 startup teams offering innovative solutions to the challenges ofagriculture have been selected to take part in the online program. Applicants addressing the challenges caused by COVID-19 in short and long runs were given a high priority. 

The selected participants will undergo a three-month intensive program followed by further prototyping sessions and scale-up schemes. AgriTech program aims to provide the necessary knowledge, expertise, network, and funding for setting up, and/or scaling up existing ventures. Gap assessment is conducted to offer a tailored program best fitted to the participants’ individual needs.  

Access to funding is an integral part of the program. To fuel the further growth of successful ventures, the program is partnering also with ADB Ventures. Promising startups will also receive an opportunity to pitch in front of the investors from the Science & Technology Angels Network (STAN). The global scale-up perspective envisions that the most promising startups will benefit from UNDP in Armenia - Cultiv@te: Innovation for Sustainable Agriculture initiative partnership. 

ImpactAIM ANAU AgriTech Accelerator is launched by UNDP ImpactAIM Accelerator and implemented jointly with Armenia National Agrarian University (ANAU), Foundation for Armenian Science and Technology (FAST), International Center for Agribusiness Research and Education (ICARE) Foundation, Nation in Action initiative, is supported by Armenian National Innovation SDG Lab and ADB Ventures Facility.