12.03.2021
Put into service by Kuveyt Türk in an effort to support innovative ideas and bring them into country’s economy, the Lonca Entrepreneurs Center started its sixth term program. In the sixth term, in which applications are accepted in two categories, General and FinTech, 12 teams of entrepreneurs selected from among nearly 400 applications will be offered six-month training as well as grants and R&D support in an amount up to 40 thousand TL.
Lonca Entrepreneurship Center, established by Kuveyt Türk in order to contribute to the technology-focused and scalable business ideas so as to be produced, supported and rendered value-added, started its third term with 12 teams of entrepreneurs selected among hundreds of applicants. The sixth-term entrepreneurs, who started online training as from 10 March 2021, participated in the GoDay program held online on March 11 and explained their initiatives. In addition to the Lonca family, investors and press members also attended the program.
In the sixth term which nearly 400 applications were received in the General and FinTech categories, the projects have been chosen from among many areas such as technology, healthcare, education, artificial intelligence, and cyber security. A total of 15 jury members, consisting of Kuveyt Türk executives and mentors of Lonca Entrepreneurship Center, evaluated startups by considering many criteria such as innovative idea, applicable product or service, scalable business model, market potential and a strong income-benefit model.
Grants up to 40 thousand TL
Encouraging the entrepreneurs to focus on their projects only, the Lonca Entrepreneurs Center provides the teams with grants up to 40 thousand TL and stands out with grants it provides in various areas. With the cooperation of Workinton-Lonca Entrepreneurship Center, Lonca entrepreneurs, which started using Workinton offices at different locations, are able to benefit from five hours of legal advice service every month as part of an agreement entered into with a private law firm. Among the privileges offered by Lonca Entrepreneurs Center are API support special for FinTechs and the support for all entrepreneurs to represent Türkiye in international contests and participation in overseas events.
“Projects in education and healthcare areas have increased during the pandemic”
Speaking at the online event Dr. Selman Ortaköy, Kuveyt Türk Operation Group Director and Board Member of Lonca Entrepreneurs Center, said, “With our vision to add value to both our entrepreneurs and our country, we continue our efforts even under pandemic conditions. We had conducted our fifth term training sessions online due to the coronavirus pandemic that hit the whole world and our country. We are pleased to meet our entrepreneurs for the sixth term training. During this period, we will again conduct our training sessions online. While we received more than 2 thousand applications so far, we have graduated 49 entrepreneurs from Lonca in the first five terms. When we look at 12 initiatives we selected among hundreds of applications in the new term, we observe that projects in the field of education and health have increased with the effect of the coronavirus pandemic. Considering the aspect of innovation to find solutions to the current problems, we see this as a natural outcome. In the upcoming periods, we will continue to support young talents who aim to develop innovative ideas and contribute to the country's economy with new products.”
Stating that the sixth term entrepreneurs will graduate on 5 August 2021, Selman Ortaköy noted that the applications for the seventh term are due to be received in June.
12 startups admitted to the sixth term of Lonca Entrepreneurs Center and their fields of activity are as follows:
- Car4Future: It is energy sharing network software and energy transfer hardware developed with block chain technology for electric cars. www.car4future.tech
- CezerUni: It is a wearable medical device that is attached to the wrist and index finger, that analyzes the vital signs values such as fever, pulse, blood pressure of hospitalized or home-care patients remotely 24 hours, alerts the healthcare personnel when necessary. Thanks to CezerUni, it is also aimed to minimize the risk of possible contamination to healthcare personnel. www.cezeruni.com
- Clickatory: It is a marketplace platform operating in the digital products category. The initiative aims to bring digital product developers and individual and corporate users together on a safe and global platform, from web designs to ready-to-use software, from stock media files to design kits. www.clickatory.com
- iLuno: A personal career assistant designed to help examination applicants. https://iluno.io
- Innoflux: Flux Braille is a portable device project that enables visually impaired individuals to instantly access printed texts, take notes and share text between devices.
www.innofluxtech.com
- NudgeLab: With its motto “observation changes behavior”, Nudge Lab is a platform that develops smart warning and surveillance systems for loan customers. www.labnudge.com
- Payeni: It is a digital wallet and corporate privilege platform that makes corporate discount agreements for companies in order to enable their employees to access a wide network of privileges. www.payeni.com
- Sweephy: It enables the autonomous cleaning of company data (financial data, order data, user data, non-structural data) located in different sources by adding field data through NLP techniques and modeling with machine learning in line with the data content.
www.sweephy.com
- TheClico: It is an application that allows for B2B solution-oriented companies to instantly monitor their feedback, complaints and evaluations received from hundreds of different web platforms from a single point. https://the-clico.com
- Varsapp: Varsapp is a platform where unused items can be rented securely. www.varsapp.com
- Vivente: Developing artificial intelligence solutions for the early diagnosis of diabetes-induced eye diseases, Vivente’s Ocellus, consists of a camera used in retinal imaging and a disease analysis software that runs in integration with this camera.
- VulnHero: It is a cloud-based software service that helps organizations that manage their IT infrastructure to more easily track and manage security vulnerabilities and security patches. www.vulnhero.com