At the beginning of the summer, Endeavor Turkey announced its 2008 Endeavor Entrepreneurs. I felt that covering this story not only reflects the tenacity and success of Turkish entrepreneurship, but also proves the existance of hot deals for venture capital and potential acquisition. Indeed, it is no mystery that some of Endeavor's 2007 winners, which I wrote about, had no problems with securing continued funding, were acquired, or had sufficient growth in the year that followed the award. In another example, AirTies, one of Endeavor's 2006 winners, after the award, secured $3.1 million from four angel investors. Endeavor provides selected entrepreneurs with customized services from highlevel
business
mentors, Fortune 500 consulting firms and top U.S. business schools. The goal is to help these
entrepreneurs scale their businesses and reach their highimpact
potential.
The 2008 Endeavor Turkey's Entrepreneurs are:
- Artesis – Ahmet Duyar:
It's product, the MCM (Motor Condition Monitor), "provides early warning of progressively deteriorating machine and process conditions, thereby maximizing a plant’s available assets through reducing unplanned downtime, and improving revenue and savings," said Ahmet Duyar, CEO of Artesis. "In addition, MCM provides information about the quality of the incoming power, energy consumption as well as the abnormalities in the plant."
MCM is a unique solution that safeguards rotating machinery from common faults, both electrical and mechanical, such as misalignment, imbalance, bearing faults, short-circuits, etc. by measuring only voltages and currents. Applications include sectors of iron and steel works, glass plants, power generation plants, water departments of municipalities, cement plants etc.
A subsidiary of Arcelik A.S., the company is dedicated to the research and development of state-of-the-art systems for quality assurance and condition monitoring.
It received the "Editor's Choice Award" by the Control Engineering Magazine published in the USA stating that it was amongst the 40 best products in 2000.
This patented core technology, a result of a 25 year-long research effort, has previously been applied in the US at NASA.
- Bizitek – Murat Şahinoğlu & Kerem Erdem:
Bizitek was founded in 2000 as a subsidiary of Probil to provide companies with e-business end-to-end customer and solution oriented software, consulting services to achieve maximum efficiency, and turn changes in technology to a competitive advantage. Since 2004 Bizitek has grown by providing quality business solutions to Companies in Turkey and around the world.
- Monopoli Sigorta – Erol Esentürk & İzzet Bonofiyel:
A new kind of insurance agency, buying and reselling insurance - one insurance policy for multiple needs online.
- Speedcity – Ahmet & Ali & Canan Özgün:
This is a motorsports enthusiast's entertainment destination, hosting all motor racing products, clothing and accessories, simulation games, as well as a cafe.
- Türkmix – Aydın Şeker & Damla Gönül & Elda Maraşlı:
By the looks of its website, Türkmix strives to be a high quality fast-food restaurant chain. With simple menu options, this could be the "McDonaldization" of Turkish food.
The finalists were chosen by the following Endeavor panelists:
Mehmet Ali Babaoğlu (Türkiye, Füsun Tasarım),
Ali Koç (Türkiye, Koç Holding),
Cansen Başaran-Symes (Türkiye, PwC),
Alvi Mazon (Türkiye, Arena Bilgisayar),
Khaled Bichara (Egypt/Italy, Wind Telekom),
Edward Mishrahi (England, Eton Park Capital),
Nick Beim (USA, Matrix Partners),
Dan Och (USA/Och-Ziff Capital),
Murat Özyeğin (Türkiye, Fiba Holding),
Fadi Ghandour (Jordan, Aramex),
Naguib Sawiris (Egypt, Orescom),
Aly Jeddy (USA, McKinsey),
Brian Swette (USA, Burger King),
Paul Harris (South Africa, FirstRand),
Shwan Taha (Türkiye, Melak Danışmanlık),
Işık Keçeci Aşur (Türkiye, Aragon Capital),
Mahmut Ünlü (Türkiye, Standart Ünlü),
Fadi Nahas (Türkiye, Everfresh)
About Endeavor
Endeavor breaks down barriers that prevent emergingmarket
entrepreneurs from reaching their
highimpact
potential. Hailed by NYT columnist Thomas Friedman as the "mentor capitalist"
model, Endeavor identifies entrepreneurs leading highgrowth,
innovative companies in emerging
markets. These entrepreneurs are given worldclass
strategic advice, access to key networks and
other tools that will catapult them to success. With Endeavor's guidance, they become “highimpact”
– creating jobs, generating wealth and inspiring others to innovate. Often overlooked,
these local entrepreneurs are jumpstarting private sector development in their countries.
Endeavor June 9th, 2008 Press Release (PDF)
Labels: Awards, Endeavor, Entrepreneurship
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Publisher: Jon H. Black
