Fideyo, a Turkish startup is helping people celebrate special occasions during a time when the coronavirus has halted all ceremonies and celebrations. It seems investors are loving the ideas as much as clients. The company offering new alternatives for those looking for extraordinary gifts or surprises has managed to raise its first investment worth TL 5.6 million ($752,721) from TechOne and twozero Ventures.

Bringing together celebrities and fans and attracting notable interest in Turkey, the video startup looks to open globally with the investment and aims to open offices in Germany and the Netherlands, as well as the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

Founded by Efe Hızır, Doruk Demirsar and Eren Güncü, the platform makes people’s favorite celebrities shoot videos as a gift for their loved ones. Users can request a video by choosing from more than 185 famous names, including Serdar Ortaç, Okan Bayülgen, Irem Derici, Hayko Cepkin, Ahmet Çakar, Sinan Engin and Derya Baykal.

Celebrities turn their message requests into entertaining videos and deliver them to the requesters via the Fideyo platform. Messages on many different subjects such as new job congratulations, get well soon wishes, birthday celebrations or declaration of a love or marriage proposal become unique memories with the help of celebrities.

Preparing for global market

In addition to video, Fideyo offers many different gift content opportunities with its new version released this month. With this new version, Fideyo users can buy interactions with famous names on social media platforms such as Twitter and Instagram. Users can request direct messages from the accounts of the famous stars to social media accounts of anyone they want.

The new contents of the startup, which quadrupled the number of video requests per month in a short time, have also attracted great attention.

Investments from 2 important funds

"Since the first day we launched the Fideyo platform, the growing interest has been quite pleasing," Efe Hızır, founding partner and CEO of Fideyo, said.

"The fact that the features we offer with our new version received intense demand in a very short time has proven that we are on the right track. With the investment of two leading funds such as TechOne and twozero Ventures, we are taking a much stronger step into the global market. We wholeheartedly believe that we will announce the name Fideyo in many countries, especially in the MENA region, Germany and the Netherlands," Hızır noted.

Online cybersecurity camp brings together new talents

Türk Telekom completed "Turkey's First Online Cyber Security Camp." After the interviews held for the camp, which attracted great interest, 24 young people received training from experts in their respective fields for Turkey's cybersecurity.

The online Cyber Security Camp initiated by Turkey’s leading information and communication technologies company, Türk Telekom with the motto "You Have the Key to the Digital Future!" in the period when cyberattacks against both countries and sectors are increasing, have been completed.

In the online camp, 24 young people who passed the interviews, received training from experts in their respective fields for Turkey's cybersecurity, contributing to human resources trained in the field.

"We are proud to be the telecom operator that invests the most in cybersecurity and has the widest service network," Assistant General Manager of Türk Telekom Technology Yusuf Kıraç said. "We offer cybersecurity services to more than 1,000 corporate customers. We have the largest cybersecurity center in Turkey. We fully believe that the online Cyber Security Camp, which we launched to contribute to the Presidency's call for digital awareness in society, will make valuable contributions to the country's cybersecurity strategy."

Most valuable resource

Mehmet Emre Vural, Türk Telekom's human resources deputy general manager, underlined the importance the company attaches to youth employment. "One of the most important pillars of technological transformation is cybersecurity. The study shows that it is important for both our country and our economy to bring promising, talented, willing and valuable people to the sector."

Among the 2,500 university students and new graduates who applied for the camp, 489 candidates who passed the preliminary evaluations were included in the online exam. After one-on-one interviews with 62 people who were successful in the exam, 24 young people qualified to participate in the camp.

In the camp program, cybersecurity training was given on 25 different topics in the categories of system, network and software, application, telecommunication and Internet of Things (IoT) security. Students met with the influential public, academia and private sector representatives in the field of cybersecurity. Participants, who successfully completed the program on Aug. 28, received the Türk Telekom Cyber Security Camp training certificate.

Investor interest in health startups increases

With the impact of the pandemic, interest in health startups is increasing. BulutKlinik, a cloud-based health platform developed to facilitate patient's access to doctors and enable doctors to manage their clinics easily and efficiently, has received an investment of TL 1 million.

The software as a service (SaaS) platform received investment from KT Portfolio Teknogirişim Venture Capital Investment Fund, founded and managed by KT Portföy Yönetimi A.Ş., a subsidiary of Kuveyt Türk and supported by Kuveyt Türk and Vakıf Katılım as investors.

Over 3,000 doctors

Founded in 2016 by Ali Hulusi Ölmez and Yusuf Güleç, who have more than 15 years of software development and management experience in the health care industry, BulutKlinik today accesses more than 3,000 doctors in more than 2,800 clinics and provides services to 600,000 patients. It continues to serve under the Turkish Health Ministry and institutions such as the Family, Labor and Social Services Ministry, having completed the necessary accreditations.

"As Teknogirişim GSYF, we have made five separate investments in different sectors so far," KT Asset Management General Manager Hamit Kütük said.

"BulutKilinik, which performs online patient followup and provides online communication between patients and doctors, is a startup with important innovative products in the field of increasing the service quality and efficiency in health care. With this investment we made in BulutKlinik, we made a significant contribution to the transformation of the health care sector, which is increasingly important in the COVID-19 process. We believe that BulutKlinik will rapidly grow with its innovative products and fill an important gap first in our country and then in the world," Kütük noted.

Mobile app

The BulutKlinik team stated that they launched the mobile application of BulutKlinik during the pandemic. The application offers "Online Video Call Service" for doctors and patients.

"Using BulutKlinik's mobile application, patients can make online video calls with doctors via their mobile phones, get a second opinion about their current treatment plans and have their examinations interpreted by doctors," the team stated. "As BulutKlinik, we aim to provide home examinations before the end of 2020 and to complete cooperation with private health insurance. There are a total of 90,000 health centers in Turkey in areas such as private clinics, workplace medicine and family medicine. BulutKlinik offers solutions to prescribing physicians as well as all clinics that offer outpatient treatment. Among current users of BulutKlinik, there are many corporate customers such as Istanbul Airport and public municipalities."

Game entrepreneurs meet in Izmir

Final excitement is approaching at Next Game Startup, the most comprehensive game entrepreneurship competition in Turkey organized as part of the INTEL ESL Gaming Fest.

Out of the 100 teams competing, 10 will participate in the grand finale due to take place in Turkey’s western province of Izmir.

Finalists will make presentations of their games to jury members to win the competition.

Next Game Startup has been organized with the aim to increase the success of the startups from Turkey in the global game industry, which has been growing rapidly in recent years. The competitors will be evaluated according to the criteria such as team structure, exemplary product, financial and marketing valuation and knowledge of investment needs.

Winners will receive a total of TL 1.25 million ($167,727) in support, including a TL 50,000 cash prize by the Izmir Metropolitan Municipality, TL 1 million advance funding by oFON and TL 200,000 in project support with services to be provided by INTEL, ESL, Izmir Metropolitan Municipality, IZFAŞ, Monster Notebook, Teknosa, Hepsiburada and other business partners.

Finalists will also be able to reach investors easily. The winners of the award will be announced on Sept. 5.

Markets accelerate their efforts in e-commerce

The COVID-19 outbreak has begun to change the investments of e-commerce and market chains. The premium supermarket FILE of the Turkish discount grocer BIM is said to be boosting its e-commerce plans.

According to the information Birnoktabir.com obtained based on the quarterly results of the company, there is no exact date for when FILE will open to e-commerce. The reasons for BIM's preparation of FILE for e-commerce are said to be changes in consumer behavior, which cause changes in trends and increase in basket volumes despite the decrease in store traffic.

The main purpose of the FILE sales model launched by BIM in 2015 was determined to meet the food, personal care and general cleaning needs of consumers at low prices, provided that they are produced in good or the best quality, high standards, healthy and fresh.

The sales area of the stores is approximately 1,000 square meters and the sales range includes approximately 4,500 products. It is also noted that 35% of these products are private brands. According to the data shared by BIM, 113 FILE stores have been meeting with consumers as of the end of the second quarter of 2020. These stores are located in Istanbul, Ankara, Bilecik, Bolu, Bursa, Çanakkale, Edirne, Kırklareli, Sakarya, Kocaeli and Tekirdağ.

Founded in 1995, BIM's sales in the first half of this year amounted to TL 26.6 billion. The company has a total of 8,921 stores, 89,05 of which are located in Turkey and 826 in Morocco and Egypt. Meanwhile, the company employs 56,871 people.

Retail ideas enter the startup race

The startup project "MediaMarkt Startup Challenge," carried out by MediaMarkt Turkey started accepting applications a few weeks back.

Applications for the project, which aims to bring together the companies that build the technologies of the future and the entrepreneurs who will reshape the retail, will continue until Sept. 11 via mediamarktstartupchallenge.com. Winners will be announced live on Oct. 20 with an event to be held on a digital platform.

Out of the projects that can adapt digitalization to business processes and develop solutions for the retail sector in this context, 10 that meet the desired criteria will be presented to the judges at the event.

Very appealing awards await the top three projects in the MediaMarkt Startup Challenge Day event. In addition to participating in the Plug and Play Retailtech Hub acceleration program in Munich, the winner will be qualified to participate in the acceleration program, which offers corporate partnerships for entrepreneurs and have the opportunity to be included in the entrepreneur network of Plug and Play, one of the most active investors in Silicon Valley. The second project will have the opportunity to pilot in MediaMarkt stores and to present its solutions to the Category Store Association, while the third project will also have the opportunity to pilot in MediaMarkt stores.