π¦π²π¦ Official Hye Ventures Website Launch
Curated resources for Armenian founders and tech enthusiasts.
Welcome to all the new members of the Hye Ventures Crew. Our mission is simple. Accelerating the success of Armenian founders and funders to build a more prosperous, equitable future. Subscribe today to join early-stage founders, funders, and operators, as well as enthusiasts of the Armenian tech community, and get coverage on recent news directly in your inbox.π
First of all, weβd like to wish all our readers an amazing new year filled with happiness, success, and health. Big things are coming in 2022!
We are kicking off the year with the launch of the Hye Ventures Website. Built using Softr.io, the easiest and fastest way to build powerful web apps in minutes with non-code required, founded by two Armenians, Artur Mkrtchyan and Mariam Hakobyan. Check them out.
The website will be the front page of Hye Ventures, where founders and investors could learn more about our thesis and our story. Founders who are interested in telling us more about their startup could do so directly from the website, while investors whoβd like to join us in our investment syndicate could do so as well. Feel free to share the website in your networks and give us feedback to improve it!
Armenian Tech News π£
β‘οΈ Voltz Protocol announced they raised a $6M seed round led by Framework Ventures to bring Interest Rate Swaps to DeFi through a novel Automated Market Maker.
πΌ Picsart acquires another Armeni-based R&D company DeepCraft in a seven-figure deal to aid video push. PicsArt also is celebrating its 10th year anniversary!
π HyeTech and Bazoomq are launching a nationwide student competition to send a sensing robot built and programmed by students all over Armenia into Space. The registration deadline is Jan 7th, 2022.
π¨βπ«π©βπ« A unique ο»Ώlevel-up training & mentorship program for product professionals led by global experts has been launched. It's an educational+mentorship program with mostly FAANG or Bay Area mentors. Their main goal is to have enough senior product professionals in Armenia in 2 years.
πΌ Tevano Systems Holdings Inc. completes Acquisition of Illuria Security, Inc. founded by Antranik Vartanian.
βοΈ TUMOβs program is expanding to Lyon! Their 7th international center, 2nd in France. It will welcome up to 1,500 local teens & offer 8 learning areas.
π World Travel Awards has recognized Armenia as World's Leading Heritage Destination for 2021.
What weβre following π
Entrepreneurship:
Free valuations and analytics for your SaaS startup by MicroAquire
The Return of Capital Efficiency by Allen Miller β Best founders track this closely (BVP Efficiency Score = Net New ARR / Net Burn)
Crypto (Crypto rebranded as Web 3.0):
The Web3/Crypto/Metaverse Ecosystem Guide by Mercedes Bent
A playbook for launching successful NFT collections by Chris Cantino
Gaming / Creator Economy:
How fans are becoming millionaires by Blake Robbins
The Future of Games Is Instant by Jonathan Lai
Jobs πΌ
Enterprise Incubator FoundationΒ (EIF)Β is looking for technology instructors to teach in different regions of Armenia. Find out more and apply here.
SoloLearn is looking to hire a UA Specialist (EU Remote). Check it out.
If you know someone looking to hire for an International Sales and Business Development role, please message us.
Also, if you have a marketing background and would looking to volunteer your time to launch a project with other Armenian founders, send us a message! It could lead you to a potential Chief Marketing Officer role down the line.
International Armenian Job Board.Β
PostΒ your JobsΒ here
Startup spotlight π¨βπ»π©βπ»
Voltz, founded by Artur Begyan and Simon Jones in 2021, offers a noncustodial automated market maker for interest rate swaps. Voltz is foundational DeFi infrastructure, unlocking waves of composable, community-led opportunities for builders, innovators, and creators. As it currently stands, attempts to use automated market makers (AMMs) as mechanisms to bring fixed rates to DeFi have been wide-ranging due to the silos they create between variable and fixed-rate assets. Additionally, lend and borrow rates for DeFi protocols can be highly volatile ranging from 2% to over 40%.
To address these limitations, Voltz has created the first-ever synthetic interest rate swap AMM thatβs highly capital efficient, removes silos between fixed and variable rates, and allows users to trade with >10x leverage. Voltz just raised $6M in seed funding led by Framework Ventures with participation from Fabric Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, Amber Group, Wintermute, Robot Ventures, Mgnr, Entrepreneur First, Backed, and NEMO. Read more about them here.
We are looking for startups to cover in our next newsletter! Fill in thisΒ form!
Hi! π Thanks for reading Hye Ventures Newsletter. Weβd love your feedback - feel free to tweet usΒ @hyeventuresΒ or email us atΒ noubar@hye.vc.
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