Hi-Tech and Entrepreneurship Development Foundation / Founded 2017 / Yerevan, Armenia
A catalyst is not consumed by the reaction.
Convergence Conference The delegation in the room
Since 2017 this foundation has designed and run the programs that take Armenian founders and researchers from idea to company - pre-acceleration, incubation, a science-industry conference, a national platform.
Most of those programs closed with their funding cycles, and so did Hero House Yerevan, the hub that housed them. The delivery capability did not close with them: the Academy ran a pre-acceleration cohort to Demo Day in February 2025, and the network, playbooks, alumni pipeline and channel into Armenian science are all intact and available to institutions with a mandate to deploy them.
Live now
Two things are running today.
The Academy's most recent cohort reached Demo Day in February 2025. These two initiatives are operating now.
Convergence Platform
Connects Armenian researchers, industry, government and donors around specific projects. Launched June 2022 with EU4Business support, running on foundation resources.
Partial capacity
Recoverable Grants
A recoverable grant facility for early-stage startups and R&D companies, run by SmartGateVC with the EFSE Development Facility. Grants are repaid on hitting milestones and recycled into the next company, so the same capital works through the ecosystem more than once.
Active
The recoverable grant model
€100,000
In recoverable grants at launch in 2022 - up to €25,000 per early-stage startup and up to €50,000 per R&D company, matched against SmartGateVC investment.
€100,000
In zero-interest venture loan at launch, for R&D outsourcing companies turning into product companies or spinning out technology.
Recycled
Recipients return the grant once they hit agreed milestones, and the returned capital funds the next grant rather than being spent once.
Standing capacity
The asset register.
Beyond the two live initiatives, this is what the foundation still has. Hero House Yerevan has closed; everything below outlasted it and can be put to work inside a funded program without being built first.
Mentor and expert network
Practitioners across product, growth, sales and research - local operators plus diaspora specialists from US and European industry and universities.
100+ experts
Program playbooks
Curriculum, selection process, mentor matching and demo-day format for pre-acceleration, traction and incubation. Written, delivered and revised across multiple cohorts.
4 formats
Alumni pipeline
Founders who have already been through a Catalyst program and can be re-engaged as applicants, mentors or portfolio for a follow-on cycle.
121 companies
Academic channel
Working relationship with the Institute for Informatics and Automation Problems of the National Academy of Sciences, plus university and research-institute contacts built through the convergence conference.
IIAP / NAS RA
Infrastructure credits
Standing cloud partnerships that can be passed through to portfolio companies at no cost to a funder.
Azure / AWS / IBM / DO
On the record
The events, and who attended them.
Convening is a large part of the work. These are conferences, launches and demo days Catalyst ran, and the ambassadors, ministries and UN agencies that turned up to them.
Mar 2019 EU Ambassador to Armenia visits Hero House
Dec 2017 Official opening of ImpactAim, with UNDP
Jun 2022 Convergence Platform launch
Sep 2022 Convergence Conference, 400+ attendees
Mandates held
Institutions that have funded or co-run our work.
EU4Business
Program funder
EFSE Entrepreneurship Academy
Program funder
GIZ
Ecosystem partner
UNDP
Ecosystem partner
Ministry of High-Tech Industry
Government counterpart
IIAP, National Academy of Sciences
Academic co-organizer
Viva-MTS
Corporate supporter
SmartGateVC
Founding partners
Standing infrastructure credits
Microsoft Azure
Cloud credits
AWS Activate
Cloud credits
IBM
Cloud credits
DigitalOcean
Cloud credits
If you have a mandate, we have the machinery.
We are looking for institutional partners - development finance, government programs, corporate foundations - who need a delivery vehicle in Armenia that already exists and has already reported. Tell us the mandate and we will tell you honestly whether we are the right implementer.