Turkish Internet Ecosystem, Investors and Supports for Startups
Investors and Supports for Entrepreneurs
In recent years, there have been many developments regarding entrepreneurship and access to investment. Turkey is regarded as a hot market in this regard. Many new start-ups were able to receive financing from angel investors or venture capitals. Also an ecosystem started to form and techno cities, universities, contests, angel investor institutions, government supports and regulations launched or developed support programs for entrepreneurs and investors. We believe that these developments are very important for the technology, internet and new economy investments in Turkey. We hope that this ecosystem will continue to grow in the upcoming years.
As Etohum, we are doing our best within our resources to support entrepreneurs. We try to speed up the investments that we selected after a certain selection period and strive to develop the ecosystem in Turkey. At eTohum we interview the applicant start-ups during July – December and in January we announce the short list of 40 startups. The shortlisted start-ups make their presentations to the Etohum Investors Club. We announce the first 15 Etohum startups with high potential during the Entrepreneurship Summit held at the end of January. We invite these selected entrepreneurs to the Startup Turkey Camp held in February. Many pioneer investors and professionals attend this organization which is held annually at Antalya Rixos. We can make investments to some of the startups that we select. You can read this article for information regarding the investments that we made last year.
There are many players in the ecosystem striving to ensure the success of entrepreneurs. We tried to collect all the resources that entrepreneurs at the idea stage or those that have already developed their projects might need for making certain applications. Many people and institutions from venture capitals to angel investors, from various contests to government supports may be helpful for them. You can always contact us about any category which you think lacks important information.
Angel Investors & Mentors
Emre Kurttepeli is the first name that comes to mind along with Etohum, Galata Business Angels and other individual investors. He is the founder of Mynet and a pioneer angel investor. He has made investments in many successful start-ups. He is also the president of the Galata Business Angels institution. Trendyol, Sporcum, Evidea, Hocam, Grupfoni, Yonja, Pembepanjur, Gideros Mobile and Balerin can be listed among his investments.
Sina Afra is another prominent name that comes up when entrepreneurship is concerned. He was one of the Global Directors of eBay when he quit his job and founded Markafoni with his partners and he is the most important name behind the success of this venture. He supports many ventures without making any financial investment and also makes financial investments through the company Akinon together with Tolga Tatari and Ahmet Emre Sarı. Sina Afra updates his blog and twitter account regularly.
Nevzat Aydın, one of the founders of Yemeksepeti.com is one of the important people that entrepreneurs should consult at the beginning stages due to his insights on investments and business models. Nevzat Aydın is one of the juries in the entrepreneurship contest entitled Dragon’s Den broadcast on HT Bloomberg and is one of the angel investors in Etohum and GBA. Nevzat Aydın is also a member of the board of directors of Trabzonspor and updates his twitter account regularly.
Gittigidiyor‘ founders Burak Divanlıoğlu, Serkan Borançılı, Aydonat Atasever and Tolga Kabataş can be considered to be the pioneer internet entrepreneurs in Turkey and also the first angel investors. The experienced entrepreneurs can work together in many investments. They also carry out individual ventures as well. After Gittigidiyor, Magnet (Uzmantv, İstanbul.net) ,iPara are companies that the entrepreneurs play an active role in. In addition, Burak Divanlıoğlu and Serkan Borançılı invested in Markapon, Yenimoda.com, Pabbuc.com and İndirdik.com. Even though Ersan Özer does not call himself an investor, he is still one of the leading names in the sector. We know Ersan Özer as an entrepreneur from itiraf.com, uzmantv, istanbul.net and youlike.com. Besides, he is in the administrative board of pembepanjur.com and supports the venture highly. Markapon, Yenimoda.com and Gideros Mobile can be counted as his other angel investments that we know of together with Gittigidiyor founders Burak Divanlıoğlu and Serkan Borançılı. For entrepreneurs, he is one of the most important people to consult and ask for opinions. Ersan Özer twitter account, blog, short bio
from Wikipedia. Melih Ödemiş is another founding partner of Yemeksepeti.com and is an important figure and an angel investor whom entrepreneurs can consult. He gave initial support and made investments in many ventures. He is in the Etohum and GBA investor network. Besides, he has also been selected as an Endeavor entrepreneur just like Nevzat Aydın. To follow his Twitter account.
Cem Sertoğlu played an important role in the success of Grupanya with his angel investment and expertise. He made the Grupanya investment together with the Pronet founder Alp Saul. It is an important example which puts forth the effect of angel investors in addition to the success of the entrepreneurs. He has entrepreneurship experience in America and Turkey prior to his role in the investor ecosystem. Besides his own angel investment fund, the Young Turk Ventures, he also worked as an executive at iLab and played an important role in the EFF investment to Yemeksepeti.com. He updates his Blog and twitter account regularly.
We know that Pamir Gelenbe is active in the investment ecosystem personally despite being a partner of Hummingbird investment fund. We know that he is behind the rapid success of MarkaVIP in the Middle Eastern market. He is one of the leading figures whom entrepreneurs should consult.
Even though Ali Karabey and Numan Numan make venture capital investments as the managers of the 212 venture capital, they are known to give one-to-one support and mentorship to entrepreneurs. Hence, we believe that they are the two of the strongest names in the investor ecosystem whom entrepreneurs should definitely contact and get opinions from.
Emre Berkin and his team of experienced internet professionals Tahir Zaimoğlu, Serkan Aşıkoğlu made ideasoft and cikolatasepeti.com investments in 2012.
İhsan Elgin, Director of Girişim Fabrikası and an important name in the ecosystem made his 2 personal investments in 2012 and is an important name to consult for entrepreneurs.
Elbruz Yılmaz is among the founding members of GBA in addition to working as CEO at BTS & Partners. He is an experienced person with a wide business network whom entrepreneurs can consult to get ideas.
Yonja.com founder Kerim Baran who made a successful exit, Çağlar Erol the founder of Cember.net who carried the venture to a certain level in 2 years and sold to Xing after which he founded Enuygun.com, Mackolik founders Erdem Yurdanur and Tarkan Onar, one of the first Trendyol and Peakgames investors Evren Üçok,Gelirortaklari.com founding partner Yunus Güvenen, bir noktaya getiren daha sonra çıkış yapan, sirketce.com founder Devrim Demirel who founded Blogcu.com and made a successful exit, Sporx founding partner İlkan Gökyılmaz, Pozitron founders Fatih and Fırat İşbecer brothers, Dünya Grup company founders Bora Uygun and Fırat Kalsın who made investments at Ycombinator in 2012, one of the first founders of Trendyol and Peakgames, the experienced entrepreneur Sidar Şahin, Dr. Haluk Elçi who has a deep knowledge of all things finance and who has made about 10 angel investments, 41-29 founding partner and GBA member Alemşah Öztürk, founder of Turkey’s successful internet blog Webrazzi.com and also Crenvo Consultancy company Arda Kutsal and Yomi Kastro of Inventures can be listed.
You can contact us about the people who you think we should add as angel investors
Emre Kurttepeli
Sina Afra
Ziya Boyacıgiller
Emre Berkin
Nevzat Aydın
Melih Ödemiş
Burak Divanlıoğlu
Serkan Borançılı
Aydonat Atasever
Tolga Kabataş
Pamir Gelenbe
Haluk Elçi
Ali Karabey
Numan Numan
Erdem Yurdanur
Tarkan Onar
Burak Ertaş
Yüksel Dibekoğlu
Kerim Baran
Çağlar Erol
Bora Uygun
Cem Sertoğlu
Evren Üçok
Orkun Tekin
İhsan Elgin
Elbruz Yılmaz
Yunus Güvenen
Ersan Özer
Alp Saul
Fatih İşbecer
Fırat İşbecer
Orkun Tekin
İlkan Gökyılmaz
Bora Uygun
Fırat Kalsın
Tolga Tatari
Ahmet E. Sarı
Sidar Şahin
Devrim Demirel
Arda Kutsal
Alemşah Öztürk
Birol Kabakoğlu
Yomi Kastro
Tahir Zaimoğlu
Serkan Aşıkoğlu
Serhat Görgün
Ömer Hızıroğlu
Cem Soysal
Ömer Faruk Akarca
Uğur Şeker
Venture Capitals & Investment Funds
Tiger Global is the earliest and most active venture capital in Turkey. Up to now the company made investments in many successful internet companies. Mynet, Yonja, Trendyol, Evidea and Sporcum are among the foremost. Fixel Lee is the Turkey responsible in the venture capital company and visits the market regularly keeping himself up to date.
European Founders Fund (EFF) EFF is a venture capital that knows Turkey well and was funded by the brothers to make global scale investments. The founding brothers of the VC are Alexander Samwer, Marc Samwer, Oliver Samwer. Groupon, Linkedin, Facebook can be given as examples to their investments. They have played a role in the successful exit of Cember in Turkey by selling the company to Xing after making an initial investment. They are also among the investors of Yemeksepeti and enuygun.com. In addition to investments, they are also entrepreneurs at Rocket-İnternet company.
Hummingbird is another venture capital that follows Turkey closely. The investors have been active in Turkey for a long time now and have invested in companies such as Ciceksepeti, Peakgames, MarkaVIP. Their team consists of people who know the Turkish entrepreneurship ecosystem by heart such as Fırat İleri, Pamir Gelenbe, Frank Maene and Barend Van Den Brande .
iLab is one of the first venture capitals of Turkey. They have investments in companies such as Gittigidiyor, Kariyer.net, sigortam.net, unnado, beyazkutu, cimri, dijimecmua, hangikredi.com, hangisi.net, neredekal.com, steelorbis.com. The founder of the venture capital is Mustafa E. Say. Yüksel Dibekoğlu and Yavuz Kaynar follow internet investments closely.
212 Venture Capital established one year ago already made a total of 6 investments in a short period of time: Balerin, Hemenkiralik, Hazinem, Cloudarena, Arcademonk, Butigo. The venture capital attracts the attention of entrepreneurs since it targets investments to Turkish internet companies. The 212 team follows the sector closely: Numan Numan, Ali H. Karabey and Dilek Dayınlarlı. Other experienced names in the investment committee of the 212 fund are Emre Kurttepeli, Mahmut Ünlü and Jorg Mohaupt
Intel Venture Capital is the corporate investment firm of the technology giant Intel. They also make investments in fields outside the active fields of the company. Turkey has been one of its target markets in recent years. Recently, Barış Aksoy has been appointed as the region director. We can assume that the investments of Intel VC to Turkey in the upcoming years will increase. Their first investment was Nokta group, the pioneer of new media and their other investment was Grupanya, the leading daily deal website.
Golden Horn Ventures is one of the funds that targets and invests in the entrepreneurs of Turkey. Grou.ps, Livego (MessengerFX),Soundklan, Yogurtistan ve Befunky are among the Golden Horn Ventures investments. Mehtap Özkan is the director of the fund. The fund has not been making active investments recently.
Last year, Sahibinden.com founders Aksoy Group of Companies made investments in Dakick, Gimora, tinypay.me internet ventures through Aksoy Internet Ventures. They want to support new internet entrepreneurs with their experience in the sector. Sahibinden.com General Manager Burak Ertaş sometimes conducts one-to-one interviews with the entrepreneurs who are considered for investments.
Doğan Holding group bought infoshop at the beginning of 2000s and turned it into hepsiburada.com. Even though the group seems as if they are actualizing their own ventures, their recent purchases of altincicadde, evmanya and alisverissaati.com show that they are also strategic buyers.
Doğuş Group was a pioneer in the internet sector in the beginning of 2000s, however they had retreated from the sector as fast as their entrance. The foundation of Enmoda.com by the team prepared by Doğuş Media Group, their investment in Euromessage and the fund that they will establish in the upcoming period together with SK Group of South Korea are indicators that they will be more active.
İnventram is an early-stage technology investment company founded in April 2010 as a partnership of Koç Holding and Koç University. The company is active in Intellectual Property Rights management, investment and trading activities. They actualize the projects of entrepreneurs, inventors and companies while giving financial and managerial support to innovative ideas. The objective of Inventram is to commercialize early-stage innovative technological inventions with the best possible business models. The General Manager is Cem Soysal.
Inovent was founded in 2006 by Sabancı University and is Turkey’s first technological commercialization and transfer company. Also being the first risk capital and seed fund investment company in Turkey, Inovent provides offices to its supported and invested projects in the Incubation Center within the Gebze Organized Industrial Zone. Since its establishment, Inovent has supported the establishment of 17 startup companies, and has made successful exits from 4 companies by selling its shares. The General Manager is Ömer Hızıroğlu.
Teknoloji Yatırım A.Ş., is an independent Venture Capital fund manager investing in seed and early stage companies. Teknoloji Yatırım A.Ş. has been founded in 2006. In 2007 it closed its first fund and began its investments. The total fund is currently about 5 Million USA Dollars and until now 5 investments have been completed with a total investment amount of about 2 Million USA Dollars. The Technological Entrepreneurship Supports of TTGV are also managed by Teknoloji Yatırım A.Ş.
We can list more players besides the fund and investment companies listed above. Pond Ventures with an investment in Mekanist.net, eCift’e yatırım yapan 3TS Capital Partners and BrainsToVentures with eCift investment, Quants Financial Services AG with second stage investment in Grupanya, Eplanet Capital with Vipdukkan.com investment, Vallie Invest which made an investment in Teklifborsasi.com together with Akinon, Private Equity Fund Mediterra Capital that made an investment in Mikroödeme, one of Peakgames investors Alpha Investment Partners, Early Birds Venture Capital, CF Partners which is one of tasit.com investors, Lumia Capital one of Markavip investors, Ru-Net which is one of the first investors of Yandex, the leading search engine in Russia with an investment in Lidyana, foreign funds and investment companies can be listed as well.
Kleiner Perkins Capital Partners is one of the leading investment companies in the States. The fact that they invested in Trendyol after Tiger Global during the third round of investments can be considered to be a sign of their interest in Turkey. Besides Kleiner Perkins, Accel Partners had also mentioned their close interest in Turkish internet companies during a talk at the StartupTurkey camp in February 2012. You can watch the talk of Adam Valkins via pozitiftv.
Atomico, the fund in which Skype founder Niklas Zennström also works as a founding partnermakes early stage and seed fund investments to internet companies. The fund was established in 2006 and they have made over 50 investments in 4 continents. Their investment in Rovio, the Angry Birds company is one of their best known investments. Wouter Gort has been living in İstanbul for a long time and has had the opportunity to get to know the ecosystem closely. You can watch his talk at Etohum meeting via pozitiftv.
Akinon, the investment company of Markafoni.com founders Sina Afra, Tolga Tatari and Ahmet E. Sarı have made investments in internet companies such as Lidyana, Teklifborsasi, Grupfoni, kariyergenc, tasit.com and markmost .
An investment company was founded by Dr. Bora Uygun and Fırat Kalsın in 2012 under the name Dunya Invest. Last month Ali Dağlı joined the team as board member and advisor. The investment company invested in VidoAct, the USA based company of Infodif which was among this year’s etohum 15 companies. The company attracted attention by making investments to 3 start-ups in Ycombinator in 2012. Even though they have not yet made any investment in Turkey, some risk capital funds are closely monitoring our market. Hans-Jürgen Schmitz of Mangrove Capital Partners attended the Startup Turkey Camp Investors View panel as a speaker in February. Imran Akram from Fidelity Growth Partner knows Turkey very well and attended last year’s Webrazzi Summit as a speaker. We can guess that the Abraaj Capital, Sequoia Capital, Balderton Capital funds which have been following the Turkish internet market closely will make investments in the near future. Besides the two investment funds we can count TRPE Capital, Inventures, Lab-x, Angelwings and Startup Weekend’s investment fund Startup Labs as other key players.
The Doğa Investment of Doğa group of companies, internet investments of Tahincioğlu Group and the İdeasoft and cikolatasepeti investments of ÇİT investment led by Emre Berkin should be closely followed up. Along with Emre Berkin, Tahir Zaimoğlu and Serkan Aşıkoğlu from his team follow the internet market closely.
Besides investments, strategic purchases or investments also took place within the sector. The purchse of Gittigidiyor.com by Ebay, the partnership of Amazon.com and Ciceksepeti.com, the purchase of Biletix.com by Ticketmaster, the purchase of cember.net by Xing.com, the purchase of majority stocks of Markafoni.com by Naspers and lastly the purchase of the majority stocks of Mackolik Perform Media Sales can be listed.
Even though Rocket-internet does not seem to be an investment company, they can establish internet ventures rapidly and make purchasing offers where necessary. Rocket-Internet group is the company of Samwer brothers and is known with its copy-cat projects and their rapid establishment of evimister, wimdu,westwing, zidaya, sporena in Turkey along with the closure of Bamarang and GlossyBox can give an idea about the speed and capital of the group.
Law Firms One of the indispensable needs of entrepreneurs is law consultancy. Working with law consultants who are active in the internet ecosystem with expertise in the terms and jargon of the sector with an ability to easily grasp new business models and create relevant law scenarios can be very advantageous for entrepreneurs.
Getting law consultancy is important for a new venture for resisting possible future risks and disagreements while also enabling the proper arrangement of labor relations, consumer relations, agreements, investor and partnership relations.
Law Firms Working in This Field
Ahi Taygün Avukatlık Bürosu – Av. M.Gökhan Ahi
Purut Avukatlık Bürosu – Av. Başak Purut
Arıkan Hukuk Danışmanlığı – Av. Ali Ulvi Arıkan
BTS Partners – Av. Tuğrul Sevim, Av. Yasin Beceni
Çalışkan Kızılyel Hukuk – Av. Sezer Çalışkan
Yılmaz & Ciner Hukuk Bürosu – Av. Esra Ciner & Av. İlhan Yılmaz
Non-Governmental Organizations, Institutions & Foundations
Endeavor is one of the most active and effective institutions in the ecosystem. The institution uses its knowledge, experience, expertise and network at a global scale not only for technology and internet but for the whole entrepreneurship ecosystem. It works as a trainer and leader for entrepreneurs and investors by the many conferences that it organizes such as iyiGirişim, iyiYatırım. In addition, they actively support the Endeavor entrepreneurs and companies.
MIT Enterprise Forum, MIT Enterprise Forum (“MIT EF”) Turkey is one of the nine branches of the MIT EF center office. They strive to make senior executives from abroad, leaders from the business world, venture capital company representatives, sector specialists, lawyers, academicians and senior statesmen part of their organization in addition to current member entrepreneurs and ensure that they participate actively in order to present an environment where entrepreneurs can develop. MIT Global Startup Workshop has been organized in 2012 and the 2nd Business Plan Contest that will be organized this year is important for the ecosystem.
The President of Galata Business Angels Emre Kurttepeli is one of the managers of the 212 Investment Fund and also the founder of Mynet. GBA members are experienced internet entrepreneurs who make angel investments especially in the internet and technology sector. Many entrepreneurs have made presentations to investors since their foundation. The network of angels which has made 9 angel investments is a memer of EBAN üyesidir and is one of the leading active investment institutions. Ayşe İnal is the General Secretary.
Metutechban – Business Angels Network founded by investors from METU and METU Technocity is the pioneer business angels network in Turkey. The Ankara based institution organizes many activities as well as supporting entrepreneurs. The instituation has succeeded in making the previous annual EBAN meetings in İstanbul. Sinem Ulutürk currently works as the coordinator of the Metutechban Business Angels Network.
Turkey Technology Development Foundation (TTDF) is a Foundation that has been started with the collaboration of 24 private sector companies, 5 government organizatons, 11 umbrella organizations and 15 real people. The foundation aims to support R&D activities and is the first Government Private Sector Partnership. Its vision is to sustain its effective role in building and developing national innovation systems and increase the international competition strength of manufacturers in our country.
The Business Angels Association led by the president Baybars Altuntaş is active in the sector . He attends many meetings as a speaker. We know Baybars Altuntaş as one of the juries of the Dragon’s Den contest broadcast in Haberturk Bloomberg television channel. Istanbul Center of Business Angels led by MG Consultancy aims to consult entrepreneurs about investors, mergers and investments.
Besides entrepreneur institutions, there are many non-governmental organizations active in the field of e-commerce. Institute of Electronic Commerce Businesses IESB, Ecommerce Institution ETICAD, Institute of Electronic Commerce Service Providers EDER are among these.
As the institutes and foundations that cover the entire range of the information sector which have an important place in Turkey; Turkey Informatics Industry Association TUBISAD, Turkey Informatics Foundation TBV, Informatics Association of Turkey TBD, Turkey Association of Informatics TÜBİDER, Federation of Informatics Associations TÜBİFED, Software Industrialists Association YASAD
European Business Angels Network (EBAN) that gather together the business angels in Europe represents the interests of more than 100 companies from 27 countries. European Business Angels Network (EBAN) was established with the collaboration of the European Commission in 1999 by a group of pioneer BANs in Europe and EURADA (European Association of Development Agencies). The objective of EBAN is to raise the awareness of Europe regarding the roles that business angels play in the regional economic development in addition to bringing entrepreneurs and investors together.
Following the establishment of Turkey Digital Games Federation (TÜDOF) in mid June 2011 under the General Directorate of Sports, Mevlüt Dinç was elected as the Federation President as a result of the election carried out in the beginning of August.
TOBB (Young Entrepreneurs Committee) TOBB YEC is an advisory committee shedding light on the decisions to be taken by the TOBB Board of Directors while developing general policies for young entrepreneurship and contributing in the forming of opinions. The Honorary President of TOBB YEC is Mr. M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu and the President is Mr. Ali Sabancı.
Turkey Entrepreneurship Council The Entrepreneurship councils consists of representatives of 32 agencies and institutes including the Minister of Science, Industry and Technology Nihat Ergün, The Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB) President Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu, Turkish Industry and Business Association (TÜSİAD) President Ümit Boyner and Turkish Confederation of Businessmen and Industrialists (TUSKON) President Rızanur Meral.
TOBB Turkey Venture Capital Council TOBB established a “TOBB Venture Capital Sector Council” in 31st March, 2011 to bring together venture capital, risk capital and angel investment professionals enabling the sharing of sectoral knowledge and experience.
Accelerator and Business Incubator Centers (I suggest you read Fırat Demirel’s article about the subject on webrazzi)
The Startup Factory: is a support structure created with the strategic partnership of Özyeğin University and Turkcell to accelerate commercialization processes of ideas and technologies. The Startup Factory provides a full complement of services to enable entrepreneurs to transform their business ideas into actual businesses. These services extend from basic support such as office space, telephone, internet to advanced support such as legal counseling. The main goal of this structure is to help startups survive through the death valley, the commercialization process of technologies from the prototype to serial product. It is located in the Özyeğin University Altunizade campus. Its director is İhsan Elgin. Other team members include Murat Tortopoğlu,Jason Lau, Ozan Sönmez. The Startup Factory is in cooperation with Turkcell, Doğa Ventures and Tahincioğlu Investment.
Metutech – ATOM: The first incubator and accelerator center established in our country just for the gaming sector. The center is located in METU Technocity and its director is Emek Kepenek . Udo Games, Buggum, WASD and Alictus which were selected last year by Etohum are working as part of this center. Successful gaming companies such as Zibumi and Lamagama that have graduated from the center are indicators of the success of ATOM.
Embryonix: The accelerator and incubator center directed by Taylan Demirkaya with which we organize the Etohum meetings in İzmir. The center established by the Izmir University of Economics supports new entrepreneurs every year. Sınavo and TrendPin which were selected by Etohum in the previous years are among some of the startups that have graduated from the center.
Bilkent Cyberpark: We organize many of our Etohum camps in Ankara at the Bilkent Cyberpark. They provide office space to new entrepreneurs with very good conditions and in addition to supporting the entrepreneurs the center strives to provide the required resources in order to ensure the acceleration of entrepreneurs.
Boğaziçi Üniversitesi Hayal Et: The Technology Transfer and Entrepreneurship Center established in 2011 by the Bosphorus University with the support of Istanbul Development Agency. They provide office space, network and access to investors to projects selected in the first contest organized this year. The director of the center is Gamze Artın.
ARI Çekirdek: ITU TechnoCity management started a process in 2011 with the support of Istanbul Development Agency to provide office space and other supports to entrepreneurs. The entrepreneurs supported as a result of the first contest organized on 7 July Saturday will make their presentations at the ITU Süleymen Demirel Conference Center. Business Development Manager Arzu Eryılmaz can be contacted regarding this issue.
Avea Labs: The incubator center established by Avea to support especially the entrepreneurs in the mobile sector. The location of the incubator center in Ümraniye makes it hard for entrepreneurs to have easy access thus such criticisms are made. Like other accelerators, Avea Labs also provides space, technical infrastructure and experience support.
Enkuba: Enkuba supports companies in the starting phase that develop mobile and internet based products in Turkey as well as Eastern Europe. Enkuba gives priority to innovative startups with a high potential of growh and is established by Piraye Antika, Pınar Kapralı Görsev and Ufuk Kayserilioğlu. Enkuba provides mentoring, initial capital, office support and new contacts to eager and dynamic entrepreneurs.
Hacettepe University TTM: One of the important programs that supports entrepreneurs who make R&D in Turkey is Hacettepe University Technology Transfer Center. The program supports projects of entrepreneurs with academicians, laboratories, legal advantages and supports. Biyoref Incubation Center serves as the second largest building of Hacettepe Teknokent Inc..
Viveka: The founders of the Ankara based incubation center Barış Okur, Emin Okutan, Ece İdil Kasap target entrepreneurs who wish to realize their technology ideas. They provide entrepreneurs with financial resources, office space, network, hardware, software and experience.
TTNET Technology Valley TTNET Technology Valley is a program developed by TTNET to support the actualization of business ideas and projects where entrepreneurs and investors get together. Entrepreneurs who wish to accomplish their business ideas and projects or investors who wish to make investments in such ventures can apply to this program.
BUG Bahçeşehir University Game Laboratory (BUG) is an R&D center established for game developers and is directed by Güven Çatak . Many professionals give training to the 41 BUG participants as part of the 2012 Summer Camp.
Seedcamp: A program targeting Europe based internet entrepreneurs. The model that we as Etohum have inspired from and that we follow closely is directed by Reshma Sohoni. She had participated in last year’s Webrazzi Summit as a speaker. They are also planning a Camp in Istanbul for the upcoming year.
Startup Labs: The fund established last year by the founders of Startup Weekend. They make investments in innovative ideas that they find as a result of the activities and organizations they hold throughout the world. They made investments to various entrepreneurs together with GBA as a result of the Startup Weekend held in 2012 in Istanbul with the support of the Startup Factory and GBA. Tuğçe Ergül is the Turkey director.
Turkish Spark: The organization established in the Silicon Valley by Kerim Baran, one of the Etohum investors and mentors who is also the founder of Yonja.com and the first general manager of Superonline Babür Özden to support entrepreneurs in the region.
Grants & Supports
ODTÜ Teknojumpp Entrepreneurship and Innovation Support Program The opening of the TechnoJump Entrepreneurship and Innovation Support Program that will support technology based entrepreneurship and help in the training of internationally successful entrepreneurs has been made on April 25.
TechnoVenture Capital Support The “TechnoVenture Capital Support” which is one of the support mechanisms of the Law Numbered 5746 has been arranged to encourage the technological and innovative business ideas of university students who will graduate within a year, master’s or doctorate degree students or graduates who have applied to their respective programs at most five years before to transform their ideas into successful enterprises with high added value and qualified employment in accordance with a business plan deemed suitable for support by the relevant government organizations
KOSGEB Entrepreneur Support Program It covers a training program with a minimum 60 hours of training and workshop activities (entrepreneurship abilities testings, business idea exercises and business plan preparation) Applied Entrepreneurship Training can be organized by KOSGEB or other foundations and institutes (universities, İŞKUR, professional organizations, municipalities etc.) Trainings are arranged for general and specific (youngs, women, disadvantageous groups) target groups,
KOSGEB R&D Innovation and Industrial Application Support Program: The program is organized for developing the SMEs and etrepreneurs possesing new ideas and inventions, Supporting techno-promoters who have technologic ideas, Disseminating R&D awareness throughout the SMEs and expanding R&D capacity, Enhancing actual R&D support, Supporting innovative activities as a support mechanism for the commercialization and the industrial application of the R&D and innovation project's output.
TUBİTAK supports for techno-entrepreneurs The seasonal applications to the support programs carried out as part of TÜBİTAK-TEYDEB are accepted in the electronic medium via PRODIS (Project Evaluation and Monitoring System) at http://eteydeb.tubitak.gov.tr.
Technology and Innovation Funding Programs Directorate (TEYDEB) was established to fund the technology development and innovation activities of the companies in Turkey. Thus, it is targeted to increase research-technology development capability, innovation culture, and competitiveness of Turkish companies.
TUBİTAK Individual Entrepreneurship Progressive Funding Program: The program aims to support individual entrepreneurs to realize their innovative and R&D based project ideas having a potential to create high added value in near future thus encouraging entrepreneurship and enabling the start of RD& intensive start-up companies with competitive power that can develop innovative, technology intensive products and processes.
Ministry of Economy Supports; The new support programs of the Ministry of Economy for Turkey based software, internet, computer game or microchip companies has been made public in June by the Minister of Economy Zafer Çağlayan. The declaration includes many supports such as the 1 (one) time 50% or at most 100.000 USA dollars support for the international marketing of the developed computer games.
Contests, Camps & Activities
Webrazzi Summit is organized by the leading media for the new economy and internet entrepreneurs and every year it brings together the most important national and international names in the sector. Webrazzi Startup conference was organized for the first time in 2012 and gives young entrepreneurs a chance to present their projects.
IBM SmartCamp, IBM presents programs to help entrepreneurs overcome the difficulties that they face. An example of this is the SmartCamp Istanbul contest organized as part of the IBM Global Entrepreneurship Program. New generation innovative companies that present solution ideas for the world’s most important problems such as those in health, transport, e-government services which have been established within the last five years participated in this camp this year.
Intel Global Challenge Intel, which is one of the largest risk capitals with Intel Capital seeks technological innovation in the ventures that attend this contest and gives 50 thousand dollars to the 1st venture to be selected in the Intel Global Challenge with a total prize money of 100 thousand dollars. iletken and wedecide.net had represented Turkey in this contest.
Vodafone Mobile Clicks; Ventures from England, Germany, Ireland, Holland, Spain and Porgutal attend this contest organied for mobile internet sector entrepreneurs in addition to those from Turkey. The big reward of the company is 150 thousand Euro! Entrepreneurs who attend Vodafone Mobile Clicks 2011 with new business ideas had the cnahce to represent Turkey during the big final at Amsterdam.
Qualcomm Mobile Contest: Qualcomm Turkey, 3G supports the mobile application business ideas developed in our country while developing the mobile application ecosystem. First of the Qualcomm Mobile Business Idea and Application Contest has been held in 2011 evaluating applications from various fields.
CEED TOBB Young Entrepreneurs Council and Özyeğin University hosted an activity during 30-31 January 2012 which will be organized by CEED, The Center for Entrepreneurship and Executive Development. Local businesses had the chance to meet foreign companies and etup new partnerships during the activity to which about hundred participants from Europe and Midde East local businesses attended.
Startup Weekend is an organization during which participant groups are expected to develop a web or mobile based application in 54 hours and to impress the members of the jury. It is organized in 2012 to bring together entrepreneurs.
British Council Global Virtual Entrepreneur Award The “Entrepreneur Award” of British Council contributes to the development of the entrepreneurship skills of young people by allowing them to develop new ideas.
New Ideas New Business Contest The objective of this contest is to encourage technology and innovation based entrepreneurship among university students particularty in METU. The entrepreneurs selected should be followed more closely.
New Dreams Innovative Ideas Only students of universities in the Marmara region can attend this contest organized by the Bosphorus University Engineering Faculty. The contest is organized to encourage university students to generate new ideas, actualize their ideas, helping them in acquiring the skills to manage a systematical business planning process and to transform new ideas into commercially applicable business via an interdisciplinary team work.
Turkey’s Woman Entrepreneur Competition Garanti Bank, Ekonomist magazine and the Women Entrepreneurs Association of Turkey (KAGIDER) organized Turkey’s Woman Entrepreneur Competition in its sixth year. The aim of the competition is to draw public attention to women’s “entrepreneur soul” thus helping to raise their numbers in Turkey to match that of developed countries.
‘There’s Life in This Youth!‘ “There’s Life in This Youth!” project rewarding young entrepreneurs is open to the application of all universities in Turkey. Innovative business ideas compete within the scope of the project that is started to promote the future business leaders and young entrepreneurs.
10 companies active in the fields of mobile, gaming, internet and technology which won the Turkish Technology Startups Contest organized with the cooperation of Turk TechNet (TTN), METUTECH – Business Angels Network (METUTECH BAN) and Association of Turkish Technology Parks (TGBD) and the main sponsorship of the Turkish Economy Bank (TEB) participated in the TTN New York activity. The New York based non-profit Turkish Technology Network established to support Turkish entrepreneurs brought together Turkish companies active in the technology and internet sector with American investors.
Global Entrepreneurship Program American business angels visited Turkey this May as part of the “Global Entrepreneurship Program (GEP) – Turkey” held under the coordination of TEPAV together with the USA Ministry of Foreign Affairs and TOBB. Investors from USA who came together with many young entrepreneurs within the scope of “The Best Venture of Turkey Business Plan Contest” listened to Turkish entrepreneurs. Those who were ranked in the contest had he chance to get support from investors from USA and Turkish angel investors in addition to a prize money. The successful entrepreneurs who will go to USA for customer, investor and supplier networking also have the chance to meet entrepreneurs from world famous companies such as Youtube, Twitter and Instagram.
Entrepreneurs Roundtable is interested in the Turkish market and brings together investors and entrepreneurs during its meetings. Entrepreneurs can make presentations to investors during the meeting which is held in English. The headquarters of Entrepreneurs Rountable founded by Murat Aktihanoğlu is in Newyork.
Startup Week targeting to support new ventures in the internet and mobile sector and to increase the entrepreneurship capital of Middle – Eastern Europe was organized during 3 – 7 October 2011 in Vienna. StartEurope also organized an “Angel Investment Festival” with the cooperation of Initial Factor and TechCrunch.
Global Students Entrepreneur Awards (GSEA) started in 1998 by Saint Louis University is organized to encourage entrepreneurship and to train a new generation of entrepreneurs. tüm dünyadaki üniversite öğrencileri arasında girişimciliği teşvik etmek ve gelecek kuşak girişimcilerin yetiştirilmesi amacıyla düzenleniyor. Mustafa Acet, founder of İndirdik.com won the contest organized last year for the first time in Turkey.
Technology Awards and Congress The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK), Technology Development Foundation of Turkey (TTGV), Turkish Industry & Business Association (TÜSİAD) started the Technology Awards in line with their corporate goals in order to: support the process of the development of innovative products, new methods or technologies in our country and to raise the awareness of our young industrialists regarding the necessity of innovative product and technology development to attain global success.
Turkcell entreprneurship awards Turkcell supports many platforms with the cooperation of its different divisions in order to support entrepreneurship and the development of innovative ideas while bringing new players to the ecosystem. Besides training and advisory support, Turkcell also gives new ideas a chance to be commercialized via such contests.
TEB Akıl Fikir Competition is an innovation competition in which people with innovative Ideas / Projects regarding banking and finance sectors (leasing, factoring, consumer financing, insurance etc.) can find the chance to actualize them.
Do you have an Idea competition calls out to young people with the project and idea competition. It encourages them to become entrepreneurs and to establish their own companies. It was broadcast on NTV as a contest.
University Patents Competition Ege University is organizing the “2nd R&D and Technology Days – AreGE2” activity with a main theme of “University Patents Competition” with the support of EBILTEM, TUBITAK and Elginkan Foundation during 28-30 November 2012.
Investors Xchange brought together foreign investors with the most exciting technology companies of Turkey during 15-16 November 2011. It also enables entrepreneurs to make presentations to investors and arranges meetings.
eTR Awards TÜSİAD and TBV believe that the most important element that will ensure the continuous development both economically and socially in order for our country to have a more effective and powerful place in the global economy is to reach the status of an information society and to complete the eTurkey transformation. In order to share advancements regarding this issue with all and to create an environment suitable for discussion, TUSIAD and TBV have decided to organize an annual “eTR Congress” and give “eTR Awards” to successful applications starting from 2003.
TechnoParks & TechnoCities
METU TechnoPolis – Ankara METU TechnoPolis has been established with a vision to be one of the pioneer technology development regions where entrepreneurs and companies giving advanced technology based services of high added value with competitive conditions to the global economy while making use of the research expertise and knowledge of METU. Its primary mission is to develop the university-industry cooperation regarding research and technology development and to ensure its sustainability.
İTÜ Arı Teknokent at Maslak / İstanbul gives support to entrepreneur companies that carry out R&D activities at ARI Teknokent, ARI 1 and ARI 2 Buildings besides the “Institute of Science”, “Center of Motor Vehicles”, “Mechatronic Research and Training Center” and “ITU-KOSGEB TEKMER” buildings located at the region announced as a Technology Development Region. However, there is a condition that the companies active in these centers should have some common features. The main partners of ARI Teknokent Project Development Planning Inc. is I.T.U. Development Foundation 64 % and I.T.U. Rectorship 31 %.
Teknopark Istanbul – The first stages of the studies carried out under the coordination of Pendik / Istanbul Defence Industry Undersecretariat has been completed in 24 April 2009 with the Technology Development Region (TGB) application to the Ministry of Industry and Commerce. “Teknopark Istanbul” acquired the Technology Development Region status in 03 October 2009 with the Council of Ministers’ Decision. Defence Industry Undersecretariat, Istanbul Chamber of Commerce and Istanbul Commerce University are among its partners.
Yıldız Teknik University Teknopark Yıldız Technical University started the activities for the establishment of a TechnoPark in line with the entrepreneur university model of the 21st century in cooperation with Davutpaşa / Istanbul Industry to cooperate in the R&D activities and the Yıldız Technical University Technology Development Region was established with the 22/3/2003 dated and 5390 numbered Council of Ministers’s Decision according to the 4691 numbered Law of Technology Development Regions.
Bilkent Cyberpark - Ankara Bilkent Cyberpark is a science and technology park established with the cooperation of Bilkent Holding and Bilkent University at the Bilkent University campus area. Bilkent Cyberpark sprovides world class effective technopark services to companies active in the advanced technology and software development activities at affordable costs.
GOSB Technopark – Gebze The construction of GOSB TechnoPark was completed in 2005 and today houses more than 80 companies with over 680 R&D personnel. TEFEN Group, which is the A group founding partner of GOSB TechnoPark with a share ratio of 49,06 established 5 industry parks in Israel since 1985 and supported over 300 start-up prohjects. With their 1600 emploees and turnovers exceeding 660 million USA Dollars, the parks export over 80% of their production. Stef Wertheimer, the originator of the Tefen Model is the founder of these parks in Israel as well as the ISCAR limited company.
İzmir Technology Development Region is located in Urla at a distance of 45 km to Izmir center and 30 km to the Çeşme Port. Izmir Institute of Technology, Dokuz Eylül University, Izmir University of Economics, Ege Region Chamber of Industry, Izmır Chamber of Commerce, Izmir Commodity Exchange and Vestel Electronics Inc. are among its partners.