Turkish telecom giant Türk Telekom is planning to support 10 new technological enterprises through its entrepreneurship acceleration program “PILOT.”
The selected enterprises, in different fields, including artificial intelligence and virtual reality, will have an opportunity to improve their projects through a 12-week training and mentoring program.
An ever-growing number of entrepreneurship acceleration programs have helped newer enterprises emerge and old ones grow with backings from business angels and the entrepreneurship ecosystem.
PILOT has so far supported 35 enterprises over four terms.
In its fifth term, the program will offer the 10 selected enterprises TL 750,000 ($211,972) in funds as well as training, mentorship and an opportunity to work with Türk Telekom.
To successfully implement their business ideas, the teams will be trained by a group of experts on various subjects, including developing business models, growth models, digital marketing, sales and investor presentations.
A substantial part of the new enterprises will help organizations with a conventional business model to acquire digital work habits as well as help small and medium-sized enterprises comply with present conditions. The teams will also benefit from office space, cloud based services and mobile communication package.
GROWTH POTENTIAL
PILOT considered a wide range of qualities in its project assessment phase, including the potential of cooperating with Türk Telekom, the projects innovativeness, the applicability of the idea, the size of the target market, growth potential, and consistency of the business model as well as competence of the team.Following a rigorous vetting process, Artiwise, Birfatura, Frizbit, Mobilya Takip, Nara, Optiyol, Propars, SaltCommerce, Vexrob and Visar were accepted into the program.
The teams after successfully completing the program will present viable products and business models in the Demo Day, which will host leading figures from the entrepreneurship ecosystem.
Ideas to initiatives
Speaking at the program, Fırat Yaman Er, deputy general manager of strategy, business development and business planning at Türk Telekom, said: “We enjoyed a great deal of interest during the application process. It was quite a challenge to choose among a whole slew of valuable technology enterprises. In PILOT’s fifth term, we will support 10 enterprises working on advanced technology applications such as augmented reality and artificial intelligence. Within the scope of the project, we will provide these upcoming enterprises with an opportunity of being trained and mentored by some of the leading names in the sector, and with funding that will help them realize their business ideas. Türk Telekom will continue supporting entrepreneurs and the ecosystem with its technologies, technical know-how and business networks.”
Artificial Intelligence to follow up ideas
Artiwise offers media outlets and media monitoring agencies a cloud based textual analytics platform that utilizes natural language processing techniques and operates using machine learning. It facilitates the work of journalists, engaging in press follow up, with a platform utilizing artificial intelligence technologies and lets them quickly access data with its Turkish language supported search engine. By providing combined search, the platform presents secure, quick and simple access to data in different platforms from one base. http://artiwise.com/
E-commerce is not only for large companies
In Turkey, there is a common bias that e-commerce is only for large companies. Birfatura endeavors to overcome this bias by offering an advanced invoice generation system developed for small and medium sized enterprises, who engage in e-commerce through market places and their own websites. They aim to introduce their users to new technologies like cloud computing, without setting any barriers. It can also generate invoices very quickly for different e-commerce sites. http://birfatura.com/
Furniture sector gets up to date
Many companies in Turkey lack experienced employees or the required abilities in manufacturing, sales or marketing. The furniture sector is one of the leading industries that are experiencing difficulties as a result of not being able to manage businesses in the growth stage.
Mobilya Takip offers a platform for furniture manufactures and sales companies. The platform introduces business management solutions such as scaling the companies in the growth stage. https://www.mobilyatakip.com/
Aiding physiotherapy
Organizing effective exercise programs is of vital importance in physiotherapy. Vexrob has created a database for patients and doctors to make an outline of their physiotherapy programs. It enables physiotherapy and rehabilitation patients to receive personalized exercise programs from expert doctors and physiotherapists. Both patients and experts can register at Vexrob. https://vexrob.com/
Beetech Awards for working bees
The Beetech 2016 awards that evaluated the accomplishments of organizations and enterprises at Istanbul Technical University’s (İTÜ) Arı Teknokent, 20 companies were awarded in six different categories and four companies received special awards.
Speaking at the ceremony, İTÜ rector, professor Mehmet Karaca said the Beetech was awarded to encourage companies of different sizes.
“At İTÜ Arı Teknokent, we believe that we serve as a model for many companies, with our aims on support R&D and innovation. With our contributions to entrepreneurship, R&D and the innovation ecosystem, we have become a leading trademark in the world. We will continue supporting new projects that would create added value for our country,” Karaca said.
During the awards ceremony, İTÜ Arı Teknokent General Manager Kenan Çolpan said: “Our staff number reached 6,183 by the end of 2016. We have also achieved a 27 percent increase in women employment, something we attach great importance to. Today, the companies here are working on a total of 807 projects at the moment.”
He added: “Compared to 2015, our R&D endorsements have increased by 22 percent while exports have increased by 9 percent, on dollar basis despite the fluctuating exchange rate. Also, there has been a 24 percent increase in the number of companies established by academics. We continue working with the objective to become the base of entrepreneurship and technology production in Turkey.
Source: http://gearsofbiz.com/new-initiatives-transform-business-style/2710