Yerevan Ranked 6th among World's 25 Up-and-Coming Startup Cities
According to a report by Valuer, a Danish matchmaking tool for startups and corporations, Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, has been named one of 25 up-and-coming startup cities projected to grow into the hubs of the future.
Armenia’s capital has been ranked 6th on the list. The advantages of Yerevan include online business registration, low crime rate, low overhead cost. Meanwhile, the drawbacks of the capital are the following: corruption and limited access to funding.
Most people would probably not expect Yerevan to appear so high on this list, but the city and the country overall are making leaps in order to promote economic growth. Business leaders are beginning to recognize Armenia as a hotspot for IT development and innovation, and as a consequence, the country has a rapidly growing startup scene.
Self-described as the “Silicon Mountains”, the number of software startups quadrupled between 2015 and 2017 reaching approximately 280. The government aims to facilitate further growth of this market. New legislation offers a five-year tax break for startups and creates two free economic zones in Yerevan in which tech startups can operate without paying VAT, property tax, income tax, or export customs duty.
These reforms have seen the tech industry grow by 20% annually, exploding compared to Armenia’s overall economic growth (hovering at 2%). The large US tech corporations in Armenia are also funding educational programs, further developing Yerevan’s talent pool. With the industry accounting for 15% of Armenia’s exports, the startup scene here is only expected to continue to grow.
The source
Here is a list of all the cities that made it to the top 25:
25. Boulder, Colorado
24. Dallas, Texas
23. Bratislava, Slovakia
22. Mumbai, India
21. San Diego, California
20. Mexico City, Mexico
19. Edinburgh, Scotland
18. Miami, Florida
17. Krakow, Poland
16. Moscow, Russia
15. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
14. Turin, Italy
13. Hamburg, Germany
12. Chicago, Illinois
11. Antwerp, Belgium
10. Cardiff, Wales
9. Salt Lake City, Utah
8. Zagreb, Croatia
7. Rotterdam, the Netherlands
6. Yerevan, Armenia
5. Riga, Latvia
4. Portland, Oregon
3. Ljubljana, Slovenia
2. Tallinn, Estonia
1. Wroclaw, Poland