“Startup Istanbul 2016”, Junction Where Entrepreneurs Meet, has ended
Oct 18, 2016


Istanbul Technical University, hosting the first three days of Startup Istanbul 2016 in its Ayazaga Campus, has had hundreds of entrepreneurs and investors from Africa, Asia, Europe, and the USA. The annually organized event, bringing together entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial ideas and projects from various parts of the world, is considered to be one of the most important entrepreneurial events of Europe and Asia. After the first three days of the event at ITU Ayazaga Campus and the ensuing one-day break on 9 October, the great final took place in Volkswagen Arena.

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The summit of entrepreneurship in Istanbul, Startup Istanbul received 25 thousand applications from entrepreneurs since May 2016, with only 4085 qualifying for the next stage, which involved selecting candidates for online interviews. After 2139 were interviewed online, 428 projects were shortlisted, with only the top 100 projects earning a spot in Startup Istanbul. Among the 50 projects that got the opportunity to appear on stage were ITU Seed projects such as Olbig Project, Irrigationalizer, Project Seasong, and AR Pandora.

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From left to right: ITU ARI Teknokent General Director Kenan Çolpan, E-tohum Founding Partner Burak Büyükdemir, and ITU ARI Teknokent Vice Directors Gökçe Tabak and Deniz Tunçalp.

Winners of Startup Istanbul

Top three entrepreneurial projects received awards in this year’s event. The award recipient projects selected by the jury are as follows:

1. CasBasha (Jordan)
CasBasha enables Internet users in Jordan and Saudi Arabia shop online via Amazon.com without using a credit card or debit card. For further details about the project, please click here.

2. Innovera Labs (Turkey)
With the security system named A.T.A.R, Innovera Labs is responding to the growing need for dynamic and agile cyber defense systems against modern attacks. Integrated with more than 40 different security relevant technologies, A.T.A.R coordinates all response activities, even involving human operators, when necessary, at different stages of incident response. For further details about the project, please click here.

3. Pobu.ca (Greece)
Pobuca is a system that allows teams to share business contact information with coworkers, categorize contacts or bring them together in a single pool. The company is planning to incorporate various other features soon such as recognition of scanned business cards and sending emails or text messages. For further details about the project that got the third place in Startup Istanbul 2016, please visit their website.

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