Startup Istanbul Challenge: Meet the Selected Startups #5

Startup Istanbul event offers to the selected startups the opportunity to receive mentorship and training from very experienced mentors, entrepreneurs and investors. The startups will receive 2 days of training. On 1-2nd of October, selected 100 startups will get together at Istanbul and meet best mentors from mainly US and Europe. Every startup will pitch to the mentors and get feedback. 2 full days, startups will get the chance to work with the best mentors. In the end of second day, a special dinner event will be organized for startups and mentors.

The Demo day: On the 3rd of October, 50 selected startups will pitch to the jury at the room full of investors. Only investors are invited to the demo day. In the end, top 15 will be selected for the finals to pitch on the Startup Istanbul stage on 5th of October.

In this series we will introduce to you the 100 selected startups, which will be part of Startup Istanbul 2015 event.

Reservista

Istanbul, Turkey

Rezervista is an online assistant for people who love to dine out, hang out and explore restaurants and bars. They can make online reservation to any restaurant or bar, easily and instantly and can enjoy other benefits of our application. Our mission is to help in every steps of their experience and make their experience memorable.

Sirius

Cairo, Egypt

Sirius is a light-painting social mobile app. Light-painting is a photography term where photographers keep the camera lens open for a few seconds, during which they paint on air with any light source, and the end result is an image with the whole painting. Sirius doesn’t use special hardware except the smartphone camera. Sirius simulates the long exposure technique but not only to produce images, but videos as well which is limited to expensive desktop post production software. Sirius is a platform where users share their art with others. It gives users an artistic language to express themselves.

SureGifts

Lagos, Nigeria

SureGifts is the first gift card aggregator and retailer in Nigeria (and Kenya). SureGifts integrates with the best online and offline merchants, and retails their gift cards online. While gift cards have proven to be successful in the West for decades, SureGifts is pioneering the technology in Nigeria, and we have successfully exposed the market to its potential as an alternative gifting, rewards and payment system.

iGrow

Indonesia

iGrow is a platform for helping people to do plantation with limitation of land, knowledge to plant, and skill to harvest by utilizing unused land. We connect urban people who want to do plantation to local farmer, land owner, and crops buyer.

My Smart Remote

Pakistan

Over 1.5 million cars are stolen in Europe each year. The number rose by 8% in 2014. Car security can be compromised in under 20 seconds with devices legally available for less than £50. Car trackers come into action when the car is actually stolen and are susceptible to jammers. My Smart Remote is a mobile app that interacts with an in-car security system to provide a solution to modern criminal methods of bypassing existing solutions. The market size is over $100 Billion. Business value after 3 years would be £20 M based on Year 3 EBITA of £2.4 M.

Indoora

Istanbul, Turkey

Indoora provides high-accuracy positioning service for smartphones within indoor spaces where GPS does not work. Its patent pending positioning technology helps users find their way in complex buildings such as shopping malls, airports and exhibition centers. Indoora also offers navigation, location-based information/advertisement services via push notifications, and customer behavior analytics. The technology is available as a SDK and can be easily integrated to 3rd party apps. By closing the gap between online advertisement and brick-and-mortar sales, Indoora’s positioning technology and location-based services will change the way that retailers and brands think about marketing and customer experience.

Hajj Guider

Pakistan

The team have developed wearable hardware and software tech that will allow the pilgrims to: 1) Communicate each other via 2 way Audio 2) Track friends and family 3) Navigate offline Here's the magic - Everything works offline, without internet or cellular connection, over a 4-5 KM range and with a battery life of around 5 days. We want people to wear our band and forget about all the hassles, so that they can focus on their spiritual journey. We already have a working prototype. We have shown it to numerous Hajj travel consultants and relevant ministries - They are really excited about it.

Segmentify

Istanbul, Turkey

A SaaS solution for e-commerce and content providers to increase visitor traction and convert visitors to customers by making smart recommendations. Conversion optimization is the main problem of e-commerce websites where an average of only 1-to-2 of 100 visitors brought to website are converted (makes purchases). All the ads, SEO, re-marketing and re-targeting efforts/costs made for 100 visitors should be covered by the purchases of the 1-to-2 customers. Segmentify provides on-site marketing by recommending the most relevant products or contents to visitors to increase their retention resulting in conversion optimization and it is integrated to any website in 5 minutes.

Touch’d

Pakistan

Touch'd is a mobile 'social assistant' for people with large networks and busy lives, to stay in touch with their important contacts. It lets you select an inner circle' of friends, and then makes sure you stay in touch with them regularly by maintaining 'relationship health' of each contact based on interactions across multiple platforms including phone and social media and gently reminding the user when a relationship needs a boost.

eListGuy

Pakistan

eListGuy is a data management and data-verification business focused on providing commercial sale forces and marketers with accurate and up-to-date information. Specializing in verified email address and lead generation lists, eListGuy provides companies with an out-sourced data management solution that allows their sales team and marketers to focus on their core competences (i.e.generating sales leads). The core reason for eListGuys success in the recent years has been "Quality" and "Pricing."