EPIC Welcomes 10 New Startups

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YEREVAN, Armenia — On March 4, the Entrepreneurship and Product Innovation Center (EPIC) of the American University of Armenia (AUA) welcomed 10 new startups into its 15-week incubation program. The Spring 2023 batch is EPIC’s 12th round of the program with all 10 of the incoming teams showing considerable promise to grow, improve, and validate their business ideas during incubation. 

The EPIC Incubation Program is an intensive 15-week program that enables startups to validate their business ideas, strategize, and begin to build their business models. This batch is unique in that it includes participants from the upstream EPIC programs STRIVE and EPIC Jam. These two unique programs were created by EPIC to provide participants with additional competencies and skills that would help to advance them into the incubation program. Both of these programs focus on entrepreneurial mindset, teambuilding, and idea generation.

“We had very interesting applicants this semester and managed to interview almost half of them. The quality of applicants in every next batch is getting better and better, which indicates the forward progress of the Armenian ecosystem both in terms of quality and quantity,” remarkedEPIC Operations and Community Manager Anna Khachatryan. “The incubation program kicked off with a teambuilding event, which EPIC designed and customized specifically for the incoming participants. The goal was to create close working relationships among and across startups and their team members to ensure a collaborative environment for the next 15 weeks.” 

Below is a concise description of the Spring 2023 cohort startups.

DasaRank is the first platform in Armenia for informal reviews of professors, universities, teachers, and schools. Ultimately, it will serve as a benchmark for educational institutions and professionals allowing users to make informed decisions about their studies. The startup seeks to replicate the popular Rate my Professor and Rate my Teacher platforms available in the U.S. 

EdMap is a platform for supporting career guidance and streamlining technical recruitment through knowledge-sharing, practical skills training, and individual empowerment.

MedBridge is a mobile app that allows individuals to store, access, translate, and autofill their medical records while traveling anywhere in the world.

Prodycle is a web-platform that helps to identify the constituent parts of electronic hardware products in a hierarchic architecture including subcomponents, materials usage, labor, and services for the purpose of inventory tracking, purchasing, and sales.

ReEducate is a digital education platform that utilizes AR technologies to create virtual labs and interactive learning experiences including games, videos, quizzes, and 3D models for making the study process more interesting and attractive. It also provides a platform where both educators and individuals can create their own educational content that can be monetized.

SkillUp is an interactive language-learning platform with a video-conferencing feature that targets language learners and tutors. Skillup is designed to minimize automated and drill-based vocabulary and grammar exercises and maximize contextualized learning.

Starship is a platform connecting students wanting to study abroad with financial aid information and scholarship opportunities.

gAIt hub is a software solution that enables medical professionals to develop individualized, targeted and precise automated diagnosis and treatment plans for gait-related disorders.

DroneHub is a software application that simplifies the use and operation of drones, making it easy for individuals and businesses to operate them without having extensive technical knowledge or programming skills. 

WeLearn is a peer-to-peer learning platform designed to help schoolchildren better understand challenging subjects and topics. The goal is to create a vibrant community of interlinked students where everyone empowers others to learn, grow, and unlock their unique potential.

The Entrepreneurship and Product Innovation Center (EPIC) is a platform of the American University of Armenia (AUA) for promoting entrepreneurial education, cross-disciplinary collaboration, and startup venture incubation. EPIC provides an ecosystem for emerging entrepreneurs consisting of first-class facilities and collaborative workspace, programs and events, and a network of mentors, advisors, and investors. EPIC fosters the understanding and application of entrepreneurship in students and faculty at AUA to craft high-impact multidisciplinary ventures.