Startup events in Yerevan: where to go, and how this scene differs from Tbilisi

Yerevan and Tbilisi get mentioned in the same breath in every relocation conversation, and that is misleading. The two startup scenes are built differently, and you enter them differently.

Tbilisi grows from the bottom: many relocation communities, many meetups, a weak centre. Yerevan is the opposite. There is a dense core of institutions, funds and programmes, and everything orbits it. The practical consequence is simple. In Tbilisi you tour the meetups. In Yerevan you walk into the institutions.

The core: who holds this scene together

Impact Hub Yerevan is a community and space that entrepreneurs gather around. Programmes have run through it, including an accelerator initiated by UNDP together with the Catalyst Foundation.

Catalyst Foundation is a hi-tech and entrepreneurship development foundation, established by the founding partners of SmartGateVC. It runs the programmes that feed both skills and a pipeline of companies into the ecosystem.

SmartGateVC is a US-Armenian venture fund investing at pre-seed with an AI focus, with more than 18 companies backed since 2018. In your first month it works as a reference point rather than a funding source: the portfolio shows you what counts as investable here.

Hero House runs a regular programme, including blockchain days every Thursday.

This is where the difference from Tbilisi actually lives. In Yerevan there is somewhere to arrive and stay, not only somewhere to drop in.

The recurring layer: where to start

Startup Grind Yerevan is the local chapter of the global Startup Grind network. Same format as everywhere: a conversation with a founder or investor on stage, then mingling. Predictable quality and a legible crowd.

Topic-specific meetups. Yerevan is a heavily engineering city, and a large share of the recurring events are organised around a subject rather than around startups in general: OWASP has an Armenian chapter with its own meetups, ArmSec is an annual security conference, and Hero House runs the blockchain evenings. If your work is technical, a narrow meetup will do more for you than general networking.

Founders Running Club does weekly runs for founders, investors and tech people. Worth trying even if you do not run. An hour of moving together removes the need to invent something to talk about.

The annual one: Barcamp EVN

Once a year the city hosts Barcamp EVN, which convenes a community of 3,000+ engineers, developers, project managers and entrepreneurs. For one person it is the highest density of relevant meetings available all year.

Same rule as any large conference. Arrive with a list of people you want to find and questions that cannot be answered by search.

The entry order for Yerevan

First. Pick one space and start showing up there. Settle into one instead of touring five. The Yerevan scene is compact and faces register quickly, which works in your favour if you are reliably somewhere.

Second. Find the narrow meetup for your subject. General networking pays off less here than in cities where the scene runs on relocation, because local engineers go to the specialised thing.

Third. Work out what the funds consider investable before you go and talk to anyone. SmartGateVC's public portfolio takes an evening to read and saves a month of wrong conversations.

Fourth. Get outside the Russian-speaking circle. The Armenian tech scene is globally wired through its diaspora, and connected to the US market more tightly than it looks from outside. That connection is the actual reason to be here.

The short version of the difference

Tbilisi gives you volume and speed: more events, more relocated founders, an easier start. Yerevan gives you depth and connections: fewer events, but they have a centre, and the centre has a route to capital and to the US market.

The wider read on the city is in the Yerevan piece for 2026. The head-to-head comparison is in Tbilisi vs Yerevan. The Tbilisi scene by layer is here.

What we run in Yerevan

Unicorn Embassy runs events in Yerevan as one of nine cities. The format has not changed since 2023: everyone pitches what they are building, everyone gives feedback, then dinner. Entry is free and membership is screened on intent, meaning whether you are building something and whether you will help someone else who is.

Announcements land in the chat, and you can ask people there what any of the events above were actually like: Yerevan chat.