Etohum announced the most successful 15 startups of 2014

Etohum announced the most promising seed and early stage internet startups that have been selected this year’s batch on January 25. The Summit was organized in coordination with the Alumni Association of Istanbul Technical University and TEB SME Banking at Istanbul Technical University Süleyman Demirel Cultural Center.

Index CEO Erol Bilecik, Director of the TEB SME Banking Segment Management and Business Development Devrim Ziya Tavil, Esas Holding CEO Çağatay Özdoğru, Founder of Idil Construction Cahit İdil, Brand Strategist and Founder of  Brand Assist Muhterem İlgüner, the author of The School for Gods and the founder of FLW Programme Prof. Stefano D’Anna, Penguen illustrator and editor Selçuk Erdem and 13 year-old Application Developer Arda Özkal were among the most anticipated participants and speakers of Etohum Startup Summit.

Etohum 15 were chosen by the most outstanding investors of Turkey

Etohum 15 list was created as a result of a thorough examination of all startup applications that have the potential for investment. The applicants and their startup pitch presentations were evaluated by the most prominent 20 investors of Turkey, including the Founder of Markafoni Sina Afra, Founder of Yemeksepeti Nevzat Aydın, Aslanoba Capital CEO Hasan Aslanoba, Founder of Mynet Emre Kurttepeli, Index Group CEO Erol Bilecik and Founding Partner of BIC Angels Joachim Behrent on January 11.

The most promising Etohum startups of 2014 are as follows:

SambaPOS: Founded by Mehmet Akyıldız and Emre Eren, SambaPOS is a Open Source Restaurant POS Software. It runs on PCs and supports most POS components such as touch screens, tablets and thermal printers. SambaPOS is actively running on thousands of restaurants from more than 50 countries and translated into 18 languages. It also works in unison with local tax legislations and business regulations.

SmartCloud.com.tr: Founded by Melih Özal and Emre Uzuncakara, Smartcloud  designs a custom iPhone/web application, on cloud, specific to each restaurant by using their logos and IDs. It integrates a website ordering platform to the restaurant's existing website and allows its customers order online via a web application.

Pratikchef: Founded by Ayhan Çobanlıoğlu, Dilek Çobanlıoğlu and Metin Çobanlıoğlu, PratikChef procures all the necessary ingredients for the intended recipe, processes them accordingly, and order them away to home-made chefs who are willing to discover novel ways to cook and present their cooking talents.

Giycem.com: Founded by Burak Hatipoğlu and Erhan Kaya, Giycem is a lingerie and nightwear online retailer, with wide range of products, 7/24 customer services and fast courier options (90% of orders are sent by courier in 24 hours).

TazeLezzetler: Founded by Özgür Çakmak, Tazelezzetler is a dynamic marketplace for food industry primarily aimed to serve for restaurants and supermarkets, along with mass manufacturers/farmers, intermediary food companies and vendors in the food industry.

Govatra: Founded by Erhan Kaya, Erhan Bayraktar and Fırat Fidan, Govatra helps customers compare hundreds of sites and travel agencies to find the best hotel at the best rate.

Supportoad: Founded by Şükrü Bezen, Supportoad raises scholarship for successful but impoverished students by using crowdfunding method.

LVX: Founded by Mehmet Günce Akkoyun and Vehbi Emiroğlu, LVX is a full automation agricultural practice packet provided for farmers. The packet includes the safety of technical equipment used in agricultural irrigation, the whole controlling system of this equipment remotely, the pursuit of all possible defects and stepping in them, the pursuit of energy quality and agricultural technical support.

Oruba: Founded by Utku Uluşahin and Ahmet Uludağ, Oruba is a medical simulation technologies company that assists doctors and health care professionals to learn new techniques and test new ideas without actual patients, with great precision and efficiency. Thanks to the "Urodynamics Medical Simulation System", Oruba produces both theoretical and practical training that is superior to traditional methods due to its almost real-life responses that can be observed in actual human anatomy, especially in a world where patient safety has become an ethical issue.

Mobidik.com: Founded by Murat Aygüney, Aslıhan Aygüney and Egehan Gürcan, Mobidik.com is an e-book platform where amateur and professional authors get together with publishing firms and readers in a social networking environment. The users publishing their own books can also follow others, share shelves in their of online libraries and ask questions to their favorite authors.

Guess About Me: Founded by Mete Fisunoğlu, Zafer Yılmaz and Sercan Altun,  Guess About Me is a brand new social and location-based mobile game that creates a fun experience of meeting new people where people guess each others' hobbies by looking at their photos.

Magicbook: Founded by Tolga Şen and Ümit Boncukçu, MagicBook is an interactive game book where mini-games and dynamic interactions are presented via two types of MagicBooks: 2D and 3D pop-up MagicBook.

Sharemyfare: Founded by Egemen Alpay, Cahit Güvensoy, Ferdi Saldırış and Emre Sertel, Sharemyfare is a social ride-sharing platform where everyone can search and find other fellow travelers who are willing to share the ride with someone, so that everyone can save on costs. ShareMyFare, available in 10 languages and four platforms (desktop, mobile web, Android, iOS), is a global application that covers a wide range of geography and numerous routes from Nigeria to Vietnam and Philippines to Egypt.

Formhane: Founded by Alican Vergin, Çağan Seval, Kemal Can Çömez and Uğur Can Ekinci, Formhane is an online 3D printing service and platform in Turkey. The Istanbul based startup aims to help people turn their ideas into reality by removing the current obstacles in product design process, like expensiveness and arbitrary pricing, and aiding the designers in reaching the benefits of this emerging and disruptive technology.

Volt: Founded by Ali Halabi, Volt is a real-time, local car-sharing application that brings together people traveling to the same direction in order to eliminate the general inefficiency in the traffic system. By using today's mobile technologies, Volt creates a chain of trust between drivers and passengers through social media platforms and real communities.

Etohum expands abroad

In 2013, Etohum organized more than 50 meetings throughout the world, including the major global cities like San Francisco, London, Dublin ve Baku, with more than 10 thousand entrepreneurs. The same year, Startup Istanbul was organized in Çırağan Palace, Istanbul, for the first time, in May. Etohum also brought together thousands of promising entrepreneurs at different conferences organized in Istanbul, Bursa, Ankara and Izmir. Strengthened by Aslanoba Capital’s partnership, Etohum received two thousand startup applications in a five month-period between July and November 2013. After a stage of face-to-face interviews with 300 candidates, Etohum prepared a short list of 52 startups, whose startup pitch presentations were evaluated in January by Etohum selection team and various investors.

15 startups selected for 2014 will be invited to three-day Startup Turkey event that will take place in Antalya on February 20-22.