Young Entrepreneurs presented their business ideas to the investors at ‘The Big Day’
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Young Entrepreneurs presented their business ideas to the investors at ‘The Big Day’
The second of ‘The Big Day’ event, which has become a tradition at the Istanbul Ticaret University Trade Incubation Center, was held in cooperation with Vakıf Katılım. Eight startups included in the Fintech Startup Acceleration Programme met with investors at ‘The Big Day’ after a three-month marathon. A total of 60 thousand TL was awarded to three startups that were found to be successful.
Istanbul Ticaret University Vice Rector Prof. Dr. Abdul Halim Zaim delivered a speech at the award ceremony held at Küçükyalı Campus. He gave some information about the competition, and said that they organized this event based on the fact that creative innovations and new business ideas are becoming more important in today’s world where the industry competition is becoming more and more apparent in every field.
Young entrepreneurs who had business ideas in the field of financial technology had the opportunity to develop their existing business ideas within the scope of this 8-week programme, with the help of experienced mentors, and were prepared to meet the investors on this day. They went through many training processes in addition to receiving one-on-one mentoring services during the programme. They tried to attract investment in their business ideas at the ‘The Big Day’ investor-entrepreneur meeting event organized by the Istanbul Ticaret University Trade Incubation Center at the end of the programme.
60 THOUSAND TL AWARD
Following the presentations of the young entrepreneurs about their business ideas, the team consisting of Ms. Zeynep Elinç and Mr. Tolga Nikbay was awarded the grand prize of 30 thousand TL with their initiative entitled ‘Varsapp’, a mobile application for the safe rental of unused items. The team consisting of Mr. Samet Öztoprak, Ms. Meltem Okutan and Mr. Ömer Faruk Öner received the second prize of 20 thousand TL with their initiative entitled ‘Finansfox’, an application that regulates the flow of finances to the companies carrying out sales in the marketplaces. Lastly, the team consisting of Mr. Enes Can Şahin, Ms. Beyza Tuna, Ms. Yüsra Senem and Mr. Yusuf Dokumacı won the third prize of 10 thousand TL with their initiative entitled ‘SALP’, a platform that improves the entrepreneur-investor relationships by providing artificial intelligence-supported solutions to the problems in the entrepreneurship ecosystem.
UNIVERSITY-INDUSTRY COOPERATION
Istanbul Ticaret University Rector Prof. Dr. Yücel Oğurlu made a speech at the award ceremony, and stated that Istanbul Ticaret University was founded 20 years ago with a view to meet the needs of the business world from all aspects as well as to train new entrepreneurs. Prof. Dr. Yücel Oğurlu has continued his speech as follows:
“When we look back, we see that our successful graduates have taken up positions everyhwere. This makes us happy. We have centers dedicated to the university-industry cooperation, and the academicians of our university produce important projects within this framework. Technology Transfer Office is one of these centers. We are happy to see the things that Technology Transfer Office does to support startups”.
Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Istanbul Ticaret University Mr. Öztürk Oran also emphasized the importance of qualified personnel and value-added business ideas. Noting that the sectors do not have sufficient access to both qualified personnel and patented products, Mr. Oran said that it is the most natural right of the business world and students to expect the efforts and finances spent for education to turn into a real value. In this context, Mr. Oran underlined that they consider it their duty to implement projects that will bring academia and the real sector together, and said that as a result, the Trade Incubation Center was formed.
EXPERT MENTORS AND THE JURY
Vakıf Katılım Information Technologies and Digital Banking Director Mr. Mehmet Tüm, Vakıf Katılım Information Technologies Strategy and Governance Manager Mr. Burak Coşkun, Vakıf Katılım R&D Innovation Service Manager Mr. Bulut Karadağ, Bilişim Vadisi Ecosystem Development Director Ms. Tuba Öztepe, KT Portföy Alternative Investments Director Mr. Ramazan Bayram, Aktif Portföy Director Ms. Elif Pehlivanlı, TR Angels Founding Partner Mr. Mustafa Alper, and Istanbul Ticaret University Finance Institute Manager Prof. Dr. Serkan Çankaya took part in the jury that evaluated the teams of young entrepreneurs.
ABOUT TRADE INCUBATION CENTER
The Trade Incubation Center was established under Istanbul Ticaret University in 2018 with the support of Istanbul Development Agency. The Center provides services to entrepreneur candidates who have not yet implemented their project idea or have not turned it into a business model, and to startups that have just started their ventures. Additionally, the Center provides boutique services involving one-on-one interactions with the entrepreneurs. To date, the Center provided several successful entrepreneurs with the opportunity to bring their business ideas into the international arena. The Center offers open and closed office use, one-to-one mentoring, and training and consultancy services to entrepreneurs free of charge. In addition, the Center brings entrepreneurs and investors together in order to provide the entrepreneurs with the opportunity to reach capital. Istanbul Ticaret University Trade Incubation Center has carried out and continues to carry out many publicly supported entrepreneurship projects for the development of the entrepreneurship ecosystem in Istanbul.
