Istanbul is emerging as a vibrant space for young entrepreneurs and technology enthusiasts to showcase their talent in innovation and high-tech.
With support from the Investment Office at the Presidency of Türkiye, the Islamic Cooperation Youth Forum (ICYF) on Tuesday officially launched its International Incubation Center which will be headquartered in the Turkish metropolis of Istanbul.
The incubation center "provides office space, event or summit management support, creates opportunities for regeneration and investors," said Mahmoud Sabra, CEO and founder of Derivative, an automation solution for warehouses.
Sabra was attending the launch event along with many other young tech enthusiasts from all over the world.
"Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a lot of human labor shortage, so, together with Sabra, we launched this startup in 2020 to integrate robots with human labor to allow warehouses alternative solutions," said Abdul Gaffar, co-founder of Derivative.
Gaffar and Sabra, who hail from India and Lebanon, respectively, graduated from the Haliç University in Istanbul before launching their startup.
Nurturing ideas
Another young entrepreneur from Malaysia, Wan Muzaffar, is also nurturing his startup at the incubation center.
He landed in Istanbul a month ago and is busy with market research.
The center is "providing market access, market study and a potential customer base and is allowing localization of my product that is Anak2U," Muzaffar told Anadolu Agency (AA).
He said his startup provides solutions to educational institutions to make the teaching-learning process easier for students.
"Ours is a customizable learning platform where a learning institution can have its own application and operating system ... it allows remote studies," he added.
Muzaffar's startup is already operating in schools and Islamic seminaries in Malaysia.
"Around 150 centers of an Islamic seminary use our platform," he said, adding, "I am in Istanbul exploring new markets and trying to localize my product."
When asked why they chose Istanbul as a base for their startup, Derivative founders Gaffar and Sabra, said, "It is a good hub for suppliers and producers."
"Our target customer base is the Gulf region besides local Turkish markets," he said.
Access to global markets
Furkan Karakaya, vice president of the Investment Office, said "digitalization has increased the importance of tech startups."
Türkiye offers access to global markets, he told the entrepreneurs attending the event.
"With its unique geopolitical location, manufacturing and logistics infrastructure in place, Türkiye is at the center of global markets," Karakaya said.
Other speakers at the event stressed collaboration among entrepreneurs and businesses besides viable investments.
The ICYF was launched in 2004 after the Foreign Ministers of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) adopted a resolution at their summit on June 14-16 that year, in Istanbul.
The forum is an international, non-commercial, non-partisan organization uniting leading umbrella youth organizations from the member states of the OIC as well as international youth organizations, operating in the OIC region and youth organizations representing significant Muslim minorities worldwide, according to its website.