TL 1M PILOT SUPPORT FOR NEW VENTURES
TÜRK Telekom PILOT, Turkey’s first corporate venture acceleration program, has announced its sixth-term ventures. A total of 11 teams, selected from more than 600 applicants, will be offered the opportunity to evaluate the collaboration opportunities with Türk Telekom with cash support of TL 90,000 ($18,813) each.
The teams will also benefit from an office space in Istanbul and accommodation as well as mobile communication package facilities and Türk Telekom’s strong technology infrastructure for 12 weeks. They will also be provided with introductory support in various media during and after the program.
Firat Yamanır, assistant general manager of Türk Telekom Strategy, Planning and Business Development, said that they aim to provide valueadded services to customers by collaborating with innovative technology ventures, to create economic benefits for the country and sector by speeding up the ventures. He noted that they had difficulty choosing the right ventures.
Yamanır added that they significantly increased the amount of investment they made in ventures in the new period of the PILOT program, saying they will provide a total of TL 1 million in cash support to the ventures selected for the sixth period.
SUPPORT FOR 11 VENTURES
After an extensive evaluation, Akaunting, Botart, Gigbi, Glamy, Netbox, Octovan, Partymag, Playz, Pollective, Reminis and Ulak, were selected for the program.
The sixth term ventures of PILOT, which was realized by Turkey’s leading information and communication technology company Türk Telekom in 2013 in order to support entrepreneurship in the country and to transform innovative ideas into value-added projects, were announced. The technology-focused 11 teams that develop applications in different areas such as artificial intelligence, big data, image processing and network solutions will be provided with the opportunity to evaluate collaboration opportunities with Turk Telekom along with TL 990,000 in cash support.
600 APPLICATIONS
Fırat Yamaner said that they received 600 applications for the sixth term of the program. “It was very difficult to choose between them,” he said.
He added that they were extremely pleased to see such great interest in the program and the overall increase in the number of Turkish ventures.
He pointed out that all the ventures with innovative and value-added projects in the field of technology were valued and that they gave priority to education and health technologies, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, the internet of things (IoT), cybersecurity and business solutions, adding that they significantly increased the amount of investment they made in the ventures in the new period under PILOT.
“We will provide TL 90,000 in cash support for each selected team, as well as office space, $100,000 worth cloud services, mobile communication packages and communication support for the promotion of their projects. As Türk Telekom, we will continue to support the entrepreneurs and the ecosystem with our technology, knowledge and connections through PILOT,” Yamaner said.
INNOVATIVE PROJECTS
While evaluating the applications made to PILOT, which was highly popular during the new application period, features such as “innovativeness and applicability of the idea, size of the market, potential for growth, consistency of business model, minimum viable product’s (MVP) potential for success and competency of team” were taken into account. After an extensive evaluation, Akaunting, Botart, Gigbi, Glamy, Netbox, Octovan, Partymag, Playz, Pollective, Reminis, Ulak were selected for the program.