40 new startups at Etohum in 2012
Akillibaslangic.com: Founded by Erdem Samut, an alumni of I.T.U Electronics and Communication Engineering department, Akillibaslangic.com is a fun developmental and educational support system prepared for pre-school children. Besides content developed by academic guidance and child development psychology experts, the start-up presents parents with analytical reports on various fields (attention, memory, language development, artistic development etc.) regarding the development and education of children.
Lastmoon Games: Founded by Doğuş University Computer Engineering graduate Levent Ahmet Sevgili, Lastmoon Games is a mobile game development company. It can release new games in a short amount of time using the software infrastructure developed by the company. Aims to release 10 mobile platform games annually via the physics engine and game editor developed by the company. Creatures Mania is its first game. GMO Busters has been released in Apple Store. Four games have been prepared for release until April.
Dekoreko: Founded in May, 2011 by Galatasaray University Business Administration graduate A.Elif Coşkunkan and her sister Zeynep Akın, alumni of Marmara University Business Administration department, dekoreko.com is a closed and vertical private shopping club focused on home decoration products. Since the first 7 months after starting its operation, the company has rapidly increased its turnover making an important entry to the e-commerce sector.
Apsiyon is an internet start-up developed as SaaS intended to ease apartment and residence management while also serving as a closed social network for residents. The website is actively used for 2.000 residences and has been founded by Erkan Doğan, Meriç Akdamar and Kudret Türk who have sectoral and software experience. Meriç Akdamar has graduated from Ankara University, Astronomy and Space Science department, Kudret Türk has graduated from Muğla University Computer department and Erkan Doğan has graduated from Anadolu University Business Administration department.
Mija is Turkey’s first independent internet fashion brand and has been founded in May, 2011 by ITU Information Systems graduate Dinemis Sabancıoğlu and Bosphorus University Global and International relations department graduate Çiçek Çizmeci. Çiçek Çizmeci has academic and sectoral experience in fashion whereas Dinemis Sabancıoğlu is experienced in technology and software. Mija sells its own designs via its website. Its objective is to create a brand like Zara or H&M online.
Minder Bilişim: Founded in 2009 at METU Teknokent by 3 METU Computer Engineering graduate friends Çağrı Karahan, Uğur Acar, Ahmet Engin Bayrak, Minder Bilişim is a start-up that carries out projects on computer control using mimics (Mimic Project), giving commands to the computer using brain waves and smart control systems (P300 Project), games played with mimics and brain waves, brain wave based 3D visualization and its interpretation (Oracle Project), affective computing and Control of Mobile and Tablet Devices Via Brain Waves and Mimics.
Connected2.me: Founded by Bilkent University Physics department graduate and master’s degree student Ozan Yerli, connected2.me is a web site allowing people to communicate with you anonymously. Founded in August, 2011 connected2.me has reached 90.000 members.
Lamagama: Founded by Bilkent University Economics graduate Nilay Yüce and METU Metallurgy and Material Engineering graduate Gökhan Ertem, Lamagama started its operations in 2009 at METU Teknokent ATOM. Lamagama is working on simulation and game technologies. Lamagama currently has 3 games being developed for IOS, PS3 and PS Vita platforms and is striving to be a famous game developer for these platforms within the next 3 years. The start-up is among the official content providers for Sony Playstation 3 since the past 1, 5 years.
Fiyatbilir.com: Founded in 2011 by Yıldız Teknik University Mechanical Engineering department graduate Talat Uyarer, Fiyatbilir.com is an e-commerce start-up selling grocery products packaged by the manufacturer. Purchasing products in various categories directly from the manufacturer, the website is able to sell these goods to the end user at both discount and affordable prices. In the light of questions about the product asked during the purchasing process, the website reminds the user before the product is finished thus building a dynamic bridge between the brand and the customer.
Udo Games: Founded in 2009 by Andaç Altak, Gökhan Güngör, Samet Kara and Türker Karahan from Gazi University Computer Engineering Department to develop games. With 4 projects, Udo Games was accepted to METU Teknokent ATOM with their team mates Eren Albayrak and Şeref Akyüz and currently continues to develop mobile games. The team that develops games for the android market with Başarı mobile company has released android based “Street basketball” and “ Hoppara” games.
Gimora.com, brings world brands and designers together while selling hard to find jewellery and accessories to Turkey and abroad. Products of more than 50 brands and designers worldwide are showcased at Gimora.com and exports its goods to varioue countries via its Turkish, English and French e-commerce sites. Gimora.com was founded in 2010 by gemologist Murat Durguner and IT manager Aydın Günal. Murat Duran Durguner is an alumnus of Bilkent University Banking-Finance department, Aydın Günal is an alumnus of Bilkent University Business Administration department.
InfoDif develops image processing and video analysis software and was founded in 2007 by Kerem Çalışkan and Salih Eren Parlakgümüş. The company provides products and solutions primarily to military and private security, retail, industrial automation and medical imaging sectors. Being R&D oriented, the company develops real-time software infrastructures that can be used in all sectors.
Alictus: Founded by Arif Emre TAŞ, Ecem BARAN and Onur Dilek, 3 friends from METU, the first project of Alictus has been GamePho which will enable smart phones to be used as motion sensitive remote controls for computer and smart TVs. With the GamePho project, Alictus aims to supply the services of its rivals in consoles to more users with lower costs. GamePho system is currently being developed at Metutech – ATOM and the games using this system are planned to be played via internet browsers. Arif Emre Taş continues his education at METU Physics, Ecem Baran at METU Industrial Engineering and Onur DİLEK at METU Computer Engineering Departments.
Buggum Founded by Baskent University Computer department graduate Burkay Özdemir, Emre Canbazoğlu and Baskent University Visual Communication and Design department graduate Murat Pak, Buggum is a start-up developing mobile and social games. They have started their activities to fill the various gaps regarding some shortcomings in the worlds of mobile and social games. Aside from this primary goal, Buggum aims to become not only a game company but also a social – mobile entertainment company. Currently they are developing iOS and social media games.
Drawium is a tool kit that allows web developers to canalize the attention of web users. It has been founded by Seçkin Can Şahin and Özgür Saygın Bican. Seçkin Can Şahin is a senior student at METU Computer and Mathematics Departments whereas Özgür Saygın Bican continues his education at Middle East Technical University Computer Engineering department with a minor in Psychology.
İyiBilir: An e-learning project built on a social education management system that determines personalized education needs based on interests, professional life and behavior. Serving only via the internet, provides users with quality content, ease of access along with cost and time savings. Users can build their personal development map through the Career Compass within the system and follow it.
Millandfashion.com: Headquarter in Istanbul, Mill&Fashion is an e-commerce website with a B2C model targeting consumers who prefer an easy and enjoyable shopping experience online. The website which started its active sales in August 2011 is a vertical venture for bags and similar products promising a focused shopping experience for its customers. Mill&Fashion started selling bags in August 2011. Has reached 5000 customers with more than 40 brands and a product portfolio of 820 bags and during August-December has increased the number of orders by 200 % with very limited advertising activities. The number of bags sold in December is 90 and this number is 280 % greater when compared with August values. Cooperation with websites such as Markafoni, Limango, Clubboon, Yenicarsım is underway and the website also serves in B2B sales channels. The authentic “Arife” bag series is a brand patented by Mill&Fashion and all production activities including design are managed by Mill&Fashion.
OpenAgenda is a technology company serving products to innovative businesses in the service sector investing in the future. It aims to assist companies in the service sector to grow online. With its SaaS model, OpenAgenda provides easy to access and affordable web services that have the same quality and functionality of high cost software used by large scale companies. Services: Interactive Appointment Service: Allows service sector companies to take appointments 7/24 via their web sites, Facebook pages, microsites or their OpenAgenda web pages. Strives to help SMEs to grow their businesses and increase their efficiencies by working on topics such as planning, resource management, CRM, performance evaluation. Informs SMEs about sectoral and internet marketing trends. Internet Advertisement Solutions: Provides internet advertising packages to support companies in increasing their web traffic and gain new customers.
Giysicini, is a clever virtual wardrobe. The objective of the web and mobile based application is to enable users to carry their wardrobes to the virtual world and ease their daily life by helping them about textile product selection. With this platform you can create your virtual wardrobe, share it with your friends, receive online suggestions for combinations suited to your tastes (brand catalogues) and offline (your friends), purchase the suggested products, record the combinations you create in your agenda and obtain product suggestions from nearby shops via giysicini mobil application while in a shopping mall.
Foodback is a mobile application allowing users to immediately send their thoughts about services in restaurants and cafes to the manager. Users can rate foods, service, cleanliness etc. and add comments to the manager. The system allows managers to access customer complaints while the customer is still at the restaurant and act accordingly. Foodback connects the manager and the customer directly and is the fastest way to know service sector consumers closer and to give instant reaction to customer demands. With Foodback, restaurant managers will be able to see through the customer’s perspective which courses are enjoyed, the customer satisfaction levels, the times at which service problems arise and will be able to follow the strong and weak aspects of their restaurant in real time.
Etrafimda.com, is a real time and localization based mobile coupon platform allowing users to find daily deals via smart phones with QR code technology. The basic feature of this platform is that it consists of mobile applications and connects restaurants, cafeterias, entertainment venues, accommodation places along with companies in shopping and supermarket sectors with mobile users looking for up-to-date and appealing deals. The objective of the platform is to help commercial businesses to attract customers during times of stagnation and enabling them to use QR codes at times of their preference instead of traditional advertising media (printed ads, daily deal sites etc.). It also allows users to search deals offered by commercial businesses around them (restaurants, cafeterias, entertainment venues, accommodation places and supermarkets) and to purchase the offer within a specific time interval.
Yurtlarburada.com is a dormitory guide including descriptions of all Private Dormitories Across Turkey for students, allowing them to find places to stay in foreign cities. It has an annual statistics of 600.000 visitors. It got popular rapidly since there was no similar project when it was first launched (2006-2007). Starting with 400 dormitories, today it has connections with about 3000 private dormitories across Turkey and about 500 of these pay an annual fee. The objective of Yurtlarburada.com is to enroll every university student to a dormitory via yurtlarburada.com and to increase its revenue by fixed membership fee and enrollment fee per student from member dormitories.
Mobilsoru is a digital education portal enabling students to purchase tests, question banks, practice tests, lecture books and similar educational content online and to archive these online under a user name allowing users to reach this content via the website and cell phones. The added values and conveniences that mobilsoru will provide teachers are; ease of use to access content (search, filtering, viewing), mobility (carrying the content with you and using whenever you want), classification of questions via smart answering interface (I liked it, I couldn’t solve it, Ask the teacher etc.) and the storage of statistics and history for each student.
BiAcayip.com is a vertical e-commerce start-up in which world famous phenomenal products and interesting gifts can be found. It has been founded in 2011. As BiAcayip.com, our target is to present a marvelous e-commerce experience to our customers. That is why BiAcayip.com team is working hard to build a better website, to find more creative products and to serve these products better. Besides internet sales, Bi'acayip is forming an innovative sales channel with its sales locations. With this unique approach BiAcayip.com brand is rapidly growing.
Popkop is a location based messaging application allowing iPhone and Blackberry (starting in January) users to meet new people in their vicinities, to get comments about a specific topic or a location or just to chat. Users download the application to their mobile devices and then may start general or private chat with users who are around their physical location. As the number of users increases, Popkop’s algorithm ensures that people who are closest to each other are located in the same chat room. Users will also be able benefit from the deals provided by different venues and businesses and follow announcements. Popkop will also be a platform which can present segment based marketing opportunities due to its pool of data composed of profile information and behavior.
Parlakbirgelecek.com is an internet platform allowing university candidates to find the university programs that best fit their interests, skills and personalities.. Candidates can 1) find detailed information about campus life, accommodation, student life, student structure, academic fees, scholarship sources, social activities and social life 2) measure their career development and abilities in different fields with surveys, 3) compare their academic status using preference, enrollment and registration statistics and thus can create their ideal preference list without any hassle. While universities can, 1) find the means to reach their target audience with a market segmentation, 2) and monitor students using various variables and form a student structure that best fits their corporate goals.
Alışveriş Kulüpleri: Alışveriş Kulüpleri is a service allowing the follow up of daily private shopping website deals from a single point while enabling ease of access by sorting the products according to user interest. It has especially been appreciated for its reminder system for selected product categories or brands and within a year it has been enjoyed by ~400.000 users. All these services can be reached via the Facebook application as well. In addition, the website has a blog on fashion and shopping culture. It has a staff of 6 full time and 6 freelance members.
Knoobl is a mobile information sharing tool. Users share lectures that they want to tell, information or experiences that they want to convey, in short almost any content via their smart phones or tablets. They can write and draw using their pens or hands and can simultaneously record their voices in a synchronized manner. So the experience resembles listening to a teacher in a classroom or explaining something to your friend while drawing on a piece of paper. Users can enrich this content with pictures and videos. Indexed by keywords, this data will enable other users to reach information rapidly and comfortably. Wouldn’t it be nice to watch a video that has been recorded by one of your friends for a course you missed at school from your tablet while riding on a bus?
Padmenu, is a customizable and interactive digital menu and order system designed for tablet computers for use in restaurants, cafes and bars. This system is composed of Padmenu Panel, Padmenu Tablet Application and Padmenu POS which communicate with each other and are synchronized. Padmenu can be easily integrated with Padmenu Panel and it is very easy to use. Customers can examine the menu using a tablet, can chech the detailed information of products along with photos and give orders. Waiters can easily take orders by entering table numbers and send the orders to the kitchen via PadMenu. With Padmenu POS you can get payments, create bills and print or e-mail them. With Padmenu Panel you can trach orders and get reports.
Abonekit is a subscription based e-commerce platform that sends users products which are of interest to them or which are intended to fulfill simple needs. By using Abonekit system, basic needs that are frequently repeated (socks, undershirts, etc.) will no longer be a purchasing hassle and instead will become a much anticipated process thanks to boxes filled with rich alternatives tailored to meet the user’s interests (gourmet or handcrafts etc.). There are 1,3,12 month membership packages. Membership fees are deducted from members every month and the product/products are shipped to their adresses. This process continues unless the member wishes to stop his/her membership. In addition, there are membership features for gifts that are purchased as an individual or corporation and special messages can be added to the box.
Ollaa is a social network enabling users to share their activities via smart phones within the framework of actions provided by the application, tag the friends they are with, indicate their locations and share photos. It helps users to discover activities that are popular among their friends or in their cities while also enabling them and their friends to get activitiy suggestions based on the sharing habits.
Mobiluygulamam.com (pleasemobile.me) is a web based platform intended to create low cost mobile applications for SMEs. It can be thought of as the mobile application equivalent of products that create template based websites. Target group consists of Restaurants, Cafes, Real Estate Offices, Blog writers and more. The SME selects its desired design from the website and enters the details. Then iPhone, Android, Blackberry, S40 and S60 applications are automatically created and uploaded to the application stores. SMEs then have a web account which they can use to get support about upcoming application types, design design and content.
Mutualizm is what entrepreneur spirits are looking for. It is a platform prepared for those who wish to be part of a start-up, to establish their own team or add new members to their team. Mutualizm aims to solve the common problems of entrepreneurs such as not finding the right team or being unable to find team members and is also the meeting point for those who wish to be part of a project. Mutualizm is a start-up that brings people together for start-ups and is a large community of entrepreneurs at the heart of the sector.
WASD is a project group formed for the development of browser based games that grows in time with people who like games and who want to gain experience. Continues its work at METU Teknokent ATOM (Animation Technologies and Game Development Center). Since January 2010, WASD has been working on Pantheon which is a new generation browser based strategy game engine and is also developing Nakrum for CETECH which will be the first game using this game engine. With years of experience in game development, the team working on Pantheon and Nakrum aim to develop new generation browser based strategy games in a shorter amount of time with lower cost.
BMsmart aims to develop a SaaS solution serving companies with a one stop business management platform. Companies can create an account in BMsmart.com and start using it immediately. Companies make payments based on pay-per-use model. The main target group of BMsmart is SMEs. In the first phase of BMsmart, it is planned to give intercompany access to companies. In the second phase of the project the objective is to develop a social network structure in which companies using BMsmart will be able to establish B2B and B2C access.
Vanilyaclub: Vanilyaclub is a monthly subscription based e-commerce website that ships 4-5 small promotional beauty products of luxury brands in a special box to which women can subscribe for a fee of 35TL per month. Thanks to the beauty profile that they fill when signing up, the information regarding their skin type, hair type and age match them with the right products thus ensuring customer satisfaction and enabling a personal service that increases the return to the brand. Vanilya Club gives the users the opportunity to try the latest make-up, hair care, skin care, perfume and personal care products at their homes while also giving luxury brands the chance to have a relevant customer base try their latest products free of charge.
UniversiteliAnlatsin.com is a professional social network for university students. Students become members and create a profile by sharing their success stories, projects, clubs and other activities. They can then communicate with students from other universities, apply for job and internship positions and can attract the attention of talent hunters.
Funrika: The main vision of the “Fun Factory” Funrika that was founded at the end of 2010 with a oung and dynamic team is to transform creative ideas into authentic game experience and focusing on social and mobile games. "iStar", Funrika’s first game project is an interactive game and entertainment platform in web TV format. iStar allows users to take place inside video, picture and special production content as a character via 3D Avatar technology and to play games. As iStar users win various surprises and prizes with their fame scores, they can share their experiences in social networks using the post-production application.
Wimsh is a photo sharing platform that gives an innovational and unique stance to photo sharing. The word Wimsh is formed by the combination of the first letters of worldwide, image and sharing. Wimsh appeals to users who are complaintive of the limiting interfaces of other social sharing sites, those who are tired of losing the work that they upload among content unrelated to photography and those who wish to meet new photographers while sharing their work. Wimsh.com members can comment on photos they like and add these photos to their “My Favorites” lists. They can share photos in their walls and participate in the photo of the day poll. They can add panoramic photos and work on these photos via Picnik that is integrated in the site. They can give technical scores to photos and communicate with their followers.
TrendPin is a social network targeting to carry the internet shopping experience to a higher level. TrendPin will increase the benefits of shopping for consumers while ensuring that better product choices are made. TrendPin will be the most suitable platform for determining whether a product has the right price?, Is the best?, is owned by my friends? Should be purchased or not? TrendPin will enable users to create WishLists and give GroupGifts.