Long ago, I shared my thoughts in a post on the founding and dealflow of E-mbrio by Teknoloji Holding (The Long Tail of Venture Capital). I slated it as an incubator based out of the confines of Teknoloji Holding, and applauded the establishment of such a firm and have waited patiently for any results.
Well, recently, I took a look at Embrio's website for any news. Apparently, after 650 applications, 1 company, SuperTeklif was chosen. Founder Murat Serdar Ozyasar presented his idea to the E-mbrio team. E-mbrio's subsidiary, DataProfil A.S, developed the sales and marketing process where SuperTefklif was repositioned as Turkey’s “first web-based authorized marketing platform", while E-mbrio developed the software and design.
 But for Teknoloji Holding, has E-mbrio become a full-fledged incubator or merely a creative spin on rolling out an innovative business development platform for investing in young entrepreneurs with great ideas, taking some risks and building a portfolio? Either way, corporate venturing is a great way to spur innovation, but still hold on to control of company resources. For an overview of corportate venturing, according to Altassets analysis of the PWC and NVCA Money Tree Report, 2nd quarter corporate VC investment reached a level that has not been seen since 2002.
Just recently, I also spoke about the issues that a Turkish incubator needs to face (Is Turkey ready for Incubators?). Does an independently-founded incubator stand a chance? Or should we really be comparing E-mbrio to the likes of corporate venture capital giants such as Siemens Venture Capital, Ericcson, IBM and Cisco (as seen in the left sidebar)? Teknoloji Holding may not have the clout of these behemoths, but you can't blame them for trying. Also, we must not forget the latest trends that we are seeing in the establishment of:
- Accelerators - Such as Siemens (left sidebar)
- "Co-operative" Combinators - Such as Y Cominator, YEurope, and HitForge
- VC-funded "Entrepreneur Bootcamps" - Such as Techstars.
(For links to these, see Post: Incubators: Is Turkey Ready for This?)
These are exciting new trends and should produce interesting results going forward. We'll have to see how this will reshape the landscape, for Turkey and abroad.
 Technorati Tags: Corporate Venture Capital, Murat Serdar Ozyasar, SuperTeklif, Dataprofil, Deal Flow, Turkey, entrepreneurship, combinators, innovation, E-mbrio, incubator, VC, AcceleratorsLabels: Accelerators, Corporate Venturing, deal flow, Incubators
|
Publisher: Jon H. Black
