In his assessment of the Turkey’s Best Entrepreneurs Business Plan Competition held by the Global Entrepreneurship Program organized by TOBB and the USA Foreign Affairs Ministry, TOBB President M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu stated that they put great importance on the dynamism of entrepreneurship. Hisarcıklıoğlu expressed that the winners of the competition have great opportunities ahead of them.
TOBB President Hisarcıklıoğlu stated that they have started developing many projects ranging from “Partners for a New Beginning,” to the “Global Entrepreneurship Program” with Americans.
Stating that an Entrepreneurship Delegation comprised of 15 American angel investors and 8 Turkish investors have met with 33 successful Turkish entrepreneurs over the course of 2 days, Hisarcıklıoğlu said:
“This is the sort of picture we want to see. This unity, the dynamism of our entrepreneurs is very important for the development of entrepreneurship in Turkey. The delegation visiting Turkey is the biggest delegation put together by the USA Foreign Affairs Ministry in terms of funds and investment amount to date. Companies were assessed in 2 separate categories –early development and growth phase- by a jury made up of American and Turkish investors. Many prizes await the winners. They will have the opportunity to be backed by American and Turkish investors of the delegation as well as going to the USA and meeting world giants such as Youtube, Twitter and Instagram.”
- Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan
Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan made a speech at the awards ceremony. Babacan stated that entrepreneurship had a small start in Turkey which was later adopted by the state and supported via tax incentives.
Listing ways to support entrepreneurship as training programs, internships and finances, Babacan reported that “personal venture capital” was in effect as per the directive of the TBMM Plan Budget Commission.
- Winners
In the “Early Development” category, Mehmet Enes Kutluca was first with his water processing project, the Green Age Tech; Abdullah Erdoğan came second with his smart board software project, Antropi Education Technologies; Serdar Alemdar and Emre Erçin came in third with their motion detection technology software project for the management of sports performance, Exa Tech.
In the “Growth Phase” category, Remi Onur, Rina Onur, Mehmet Ülkü and Alper Kaya came in first with their short term real estate search engine project, HemenKiralık.com; Kerem Çalışkan and Salih Eren Parlakgümüş came in second with their image processing system project, Info Dif Ltd; Altuğ Acar and Pınar Kart came in third with their gift sending mobile software project, Hediyemo.
