EPIC startup teams: Rido, FinAssist and BeautyBook

At the beginning of October Entrepreneurship and Product Innovation Center (EPIC) of the American University of Armenia (AUA) welcomed its 3rd batch of venture startup teams to the EPIC business incubator.

During the course of the program, 9 teams participate in a 12-week ideas-stage incubation training to shape their ventures, validate their business concepts, and build the business model, benefiting from the advantages of AUA ecosystem.

Itel.am introduces teams of EPIC Fall 2018 Batch. In the first part of the series we will talk about Rido, FinAssist and BeautyBook startups, which aim to connect customers with service providers in sectors of car resting, finance and beauty services.

Rido aims to be the first platform in Armenia that will connect private car owners with people who want to rent cars.

According to the founders, car owners will be able to list their services and potential customers will be able to compare, book, and rate those services.

Rido aims to provide 30% cost savings compared to prevalent options in the market. The three co-founders have over five years of experience in finance, business development, and IT, including time at Microsoft Innovation Center and with Hewlett Packard Enterprise. They have recently started the software development for their startup.

FinAssist is a centralized portal where people will be able to apply for financial products, such as auto-loans, simultaneously from multiple financial institutions. The institutions will either accept or deny the applications received.

According to the founders of the startup, the customer will have a dashboard of all accepted offers to filter through and ultimately make a decision on the best choice for them.

BeautyBook is a mobile booking system that helps clients schedule an appointment at a salon or beauty parlor.

It aims to make the search for salons easier and wider and the booking process more effective for users.

The mobile booking system provides salons with a comprehensive CRM toolkit that is bound to expand their menu and improve the quality of their services. Salons will be the test market for BeautyBook. Upon success, the team aims to expand into other markets and retail (B2C) segments. 

Narine Daneghyan