Who is building Armenia's IT community: 14 founders of local communities

Karen Vardanyan and Oghannes Avoyan 

The Union of Advanced Technological Enterprises of Armenia UATE was founded in 2000 by six IT companies under the name UITE. Today, the organization brings together more than 200 technology companies and is engaged in the development of the country's IT ecosystem.

UATE organizes Armenia's largest technology exhibition, DigiTec, and develops the Armath network of engineering laboratories for schoolchildren.

Seda Papoyan

Seda Papoyan heads Girls in Tech Armenia, the Armenian chapter of a global organization that introduces girls to technology and helps them build careers in IT. She also founded FemInno — a platform for women's innovation in Armenia and the South Caucasus, which hosts an international conference and develops the AI Girls program for schoolgirls.

Narine Kotikyan

Narine Kotikyan is the founder of the Armenian chapters of Startup Grind and Founder Institute. Startup Grind Yerevan is part of a global community for entrepreneurs, bringing together more than 1,200 members in Yerevan. The community regularly hosts meetings with founders of successful companies: guests have included representatives from SoloLearn, Joomag, and Menu.am.

Grant Khachatryan

Grant Khachatryan is the co-founder and director of YerevaNN, a non-profit machine learning research laboratory. The foundation was registered in 2016, and its board also includes Gor Vardanyan, Vazgen Akopdjanyan, and Ruben Meshchyan. The laboratory collaborates with ML professors from the Armenian diaspora and engages students in cutting-edge research projects. Grant also became one of the co-founders of the DataFest Yerevan conference.

Kristine Armiyants

Kristine Armiyants is the founder and head of AWS User Group Armenia, a community for everyone interested in AWS cloud technologies. The community currently has nearly 900 members. The team hosts the AWS Community Day conference in Yerevan: in 2025, it brought together more than 440 people, and the next one will take place on October 10, 2026, at the American University of Armenia.

Abet Madoyan

Abet Madoyan is the co-founder of PyData Yerevan and the head of the Data Science program at the American University of Armenia. The community hosts monthly meetups, and its first international conference in 2022 brought together more than 350 participants. In 2026, PyData Yerevan hosted its first joint PyData & PyCon Yerevan conference with over 30 speakers from Armenia and other countries.

Vardan Papikyan

Vardan Papikyan is one of the organizers of GDG Yerevan, the Armenian chapter of Google Developer Groups. The community brings together developers who work with Google technologies — from Android and Flutter to Google Cloud and machine learning. 

Arman Mamyan

Arman Mamyan heads IGDA Yerevan — the Armenian chapter of the International Game Developers Association. The community supports independent game developers, helps newcomers enter the industry, and develops the game development ecosystem in Armenia and the region.

Sara Anjargolian, Vahe Keushguerian,Raffi Kassardjian, Audrey Selian and Narine Mirzayan

Impact Hub Yerevan is a space and community for social innovation, founded in February 2016 by five people: Sara Anjargolian, Vahe Keushguerian, Raffi Kassardjian, Audrey Selian, and Narine Mirzayan. Today, the community brings together more than 220 members and over 100 projects and organizations. During this time, the team has developed over 20 programs and conducted more than 400 workshops and events for entrepreneurs and startups.