02.03.2018
10 startups commercializing their technology-based business ideas and establishing companies are prepared to put a firm stamp on their industries.
Established by Kuveyt Türk in cooperation with Workinton in September 2017 with an aim to foster new ideas for the benefit of the national economy, the Lonca Entrepreneurs Center has completed its first term of training and held a graduation ceremony. Young entrepreneurs obtaining mentoring and consulting support in a number of fields especially including finance, management, sales and marketing for six months are now ready to take investments. Young entrepreneurs have delivered their graduation presentations during the Lonca Day held with the participation of Mr. İrfan Yılmaz, EVP of Banking Service Group at Kuveyt Türk, Mrs. Pınar Massena, the CEO of Workinton, press members, influencers and other entrepreneurs.
Around one thousand entrepreneurs have applied for the first term of the Lonca Entrepreneurs Center, introduced by Kuveyt Türk as a reflection of its belief that the people with entrepreneur spirit establish their own business and become real entrepreneurs. 10 entrepreneur ideas incuding Compocket, Catchman, FulleGitsin, Bisigortaci.com, Fosefi, SmartFactory, Nakitex, Zeeg Zag, Ratorik and Yobot which have been elected among the applicants and developed for six months have been introduced at the Lonca Day before they meet with the investors.
Full support to startups
Mr. İrfan Yılmaz, EVP of Banking Service Group at Kuveyt Türk said that they have provided a strong support to entrepreneurship and startup ecosystem and went on to say, “We are well aware of how important the entrepreneurship is for the Turkish economy. Therefore we have been interested in entrepreneurship ecosystem and startups. The only bank in Türkiye with two R&D centers, we are focused on innovation and technology. We believe that the entrepreneurship matches up with that spirit and we are willing to take an active role in this arena. Taking part in the entrepreneurship ecosystem, we can increase the quality and number of value added products and services offered to our customers. We intend to support at least 30 projects and around 100 entrepreneurs with three application periods each year. As from March, we will continue our startup support also through investments with Venture Capital Investment Fund.
Nest for young entrepreneurs
Expressing their happiness and pride for hosting and supporting young entrepreneurs at Lonca Entrepreneurs Center, one of the mast unique examples of the cooperation between the banking sector and the connected sectors, Mrs. Pinar Massena, CEO of Workinton said, “We have prepared our young people with technology-based and sustainable business ideas so that they are now able to contribute to the national economy.” Mr. Massena told that the scaleability of the business idea is as equally important as the authenticity of the idea and that they were very pleased to see the first graduates of the two of the three incubation centers within Workinton.
Inspiring projects from young entrepreneurs
Young entrepreneurs have made their presentations at Workinton Levent 199 Branch. Especially, it was very interesting that the valuable virtual gifts placed at the meeting hall by Catchman were looked for by mobile devices.
10 startups attending the Lonca Day which are ready to take investments and have made their presentations and their fields of activity are as follows:
- Zeegzag: A payment system allowing sellers and buyers who are willing to collect and pay respectively in CPOS crypto monetary units to meet on a digital platform
- Nakitex: A system reducing the costs of installing new ATMs and saving customers from paying high commissions, where customers will be able to withdraw and deposit funds by using small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) as ATMs.
- Yobot: A programmable educational set teaching children above age 3 to create algorithms, to think analytically and to program using the Montessorri principles.
- Smart Factory: A system enabling factories to connect their CNC and PLC controlled machines with the Internet.
- Bisigortacım.com: A marketplace where insurance customers and insurance brokers meet.
- Fosefi: A B2B marketplace where the publishing rights to all kinds of contents of the publishing world, including TV series, films, documentaries, cartoons etc, are traded online at a global scale.
- Ratonik: A multifunctional smart control system for soil-free agriculture.
- Compocket: A hardware-software project ensuring measurement devices used in electronics laboratories to be compatible with computers and mobile devices.
- Catchman: An application for mobile devices enabling stores located in shopping malls to offer their products at high discounts to consumers.
- FulleGitsin: It is an app which enables paying at a discount in gas stations with no need to get out of the car.