55 startups flew to the heart of Azerbaijan, Baku to showcase their latest innovations and pitch their ideas to potential investors in line with ICYF’s 7 pillars which include total economic empowerment of the youth. The successful 3-day culture meets business style mega event was more than just an amalgamation of culture and business as it also served as an open invitation to the world from Azerbaijan as the country opens its doors to businesses and investment especially in the newly liberated regions that are an integral part of Azerbaijan culture and the economy at large. The event, which was organized by the Islamic Cooperation Youth Forum (ICYF) and the Small and Medium Business Development Agency (SMBDA) of the Republic of Azerbaijan under the patronage of the Ministries of Economy and Culture of the Republic of Azerbaijan, was held under the theme “Towards Enhancing Intra-OIC Investment Opportunities: Investment to Sustain Peace and Development in Karabakh”.

55 startups from 16 different countries participated in the investment and culture summit. Our startups are selected from the early and growth stages and they are working on the verticals of food, agritech, smarttech, logistics, smart city, environment, renewable energy, fintech, games, application, green industry, aviation, space tech, VR, healthtech.

During the program, it is planned to conduct 170 online and 150+ offline meetings. As a result of other negotiations, it is expected that cooperation and investment will arise from our other startups.

As foreign investors, 29 investors including global fund representatives from 16 different countries, attended our summit. Global investors with a fund size of more than 500 million dollars were allowed to directly contact Azerbaijani startups and accelerators. Incubation centers in the Azerbaijan ecosystem have had cooperation talks with accelerators to make joint investments and organize programs. This summit has created a great opportunity for the entrepreneurs of Azerbaijan and the region to open up to the global.

At the event with 10+ deals and news will be coming soon along with 4 potential investment.

Let’s wrap up the summits;

On the 11th of November, we were at the main area for a grand opening of the WEIF, ABIC and YBH Startup Summit with the participation of King of Bahrain, Hamed bin Isa el-Halife had a pack for the conference to follow up the schedule and connect with investors, startups and all other delegates in a tablet. Looking at the venue, logistics support, and swags… It was a really well-organized event.For the second day, we were at the WEIF summit for our program. Started with the opening ceremony of WEIF 2019 and panels. Before the summit, we contacted our mentors in Bahrain, invited them to summit to see how we can contribute to each other. With the special thanks to our mentor; Narayanan Ganapathy, 10 selected startups had a chance to met with Angivest VC. Narayanan and Fareed Bader, Managing Partner of Angivest, shared their experience and expectations; and listened to 10 startups selected out of the 56 startup invited by ICYF. Pakvitae, Plexus, Uservision, Instacare, Meerkiddo, VisitorLab, Minorpreneurs, Intixel, HealthiStory, Recycle Go Myanmar had a chance to pitch for the investors. After this session, the program continued with the bilateral meetings as an entrepreneur to the entrepreneur.

On the 3rd and last day of the conference, we started our program with the opening of Young Business Hub. Institutionalizing Innovation was the next session and Hackquarters Founder & CEO Kaan Akın was one of the panelists. The other panelists were Mr. Rasmus Wiinstedt Tscherning – Managing Director Creative Business Network, Denmark, Mr. Omer Oz – Senior President Advisor KOSGEB, Turkey and Kaiser Naseem – International Development Banker and Digital Transformation Expert, moderated very pleasantly by Weixi Gong – Chief of UNIDO’s Investment Promotion Division and Coordinator for the Investment and Technology Promotion Offices.The next session was a panel with Taha Ayhan, President of Islamic Cooperation Youth Forum, Mehman Abbas, Deputy Chairman of the Board of the KOB Azerbaijan, Arda Ermut, Turkish Presidency Investment Office, Shaikha Abdullah Al Fadhel, Director of SMEs Development Directorate – Bahrain Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism moderated by Dr. Abla Adel Latif, Executive Director of Research of the Egyptian Center for Economic Studies.We’ll share all the success stories related YBH Summit in a few days via our social media. Stay tuned!

Bahrain Startup Ecosystem at Glance

As scaleup is the most challenging part of any startup business it was extremely important for us to provide access for our startups to the ecosystem of Bahrain; and MENA in general. Especially for the startups coming from Turkey and region covering OIC countries MENA and Bahrain in particularly is quite attractive in terms of new market access. At the same time accessing infrastructure directly from the ground benefiting out of all opportunities and resources provided by the Government and ecosystem has additional advantages for entrepreneurs. That was the reason why the Hackquarters team reached out to all our partners in Bahrain. Providing tangible support for the startups planning to access new markets and facilitate partnership and further collaboration Hackquarters team took an initiative powered by ICYF to invite major ecosystem players to one networking panel.Here, special thanks go to Pakiza Abdulrahman, Business Development Manager at Economic Development Board of Bahrain, who supported Hackquarters team from the planning stage of the event and helped to establish a good relationship with major institutions, Venture Capitals, and Startup Accelerators. After brief intro panel participants joined the open discussion and Q&A session from the audience; and networking with startups face to face.The panel started with the introduction of Simon Galpin, Managing Partners at EDB. Economic Development Board of Bahrain provides guidance for each new or expanding company, small or large, through every step of the investment journey. EDB team is ready to help each entrepreneur or company pursue local, regional or global business opportunities in Bahrain. Bahrain EDB can help you benefit from our business infrastructure, find a location for your business, discover talent, navigate any legal requirements.

Jenan Al-Muharriq from Startup Bahrain shared the success story of the organization and strategy in the region. Startup Bahrain is the national movement to promote tech startups and entrepreneurship in Bahrain and the region.Saleh Abbas, Marketing and Outreach Manager at Flat6Labs Bahrain share experience directly from the ground in particularly how Flat6Labs is dealing with startups. Launched in partnership with Tamkeen State Fund, Flat6Labs Bahrain is an accelerator program aiming to help accelerate the growth of local and international startups contributing to the rapidly growing venture capital ecosystem of Bahrain. It would be unfair not to mention Ryaan Sharif and Noor Bahman for their support and guidance in Bahrain.

The International Entrepreneurship Center is coming to life in Istanbul under the auspices of the Investment Office of the Presidency of Turkey. A cooperation protocol was signed for the center to be established by the Islamic Cooperation Youth Forum (ICYF), which works for over 600 million youths in the OIC region, and the Bilişim Vadisi, Turkey’s largest thematic technopark.

The cooperation protocol was signed at the Investment Office of the Presidency of Turkey in Beşiktaş with the participation of Ahmet Burak Dağlıoğlu, President of the Investment Office of the Presidency of Turkey, Taha Ayhan, President of ICYF, and Ahmet Serdar Ibrahimcioğlu, General Manager of Bilişim Vadisi. The the center, which will open its doors to international young entrepreneurs living or studying in Turkey, aims to provide young people with the opportunities they need.

Entrepreneurship courses will be given within the framework, support will be offered in the commercialization process, consulting and mentoring will be carried the center will serve on its campus in Istanbul under the leadership of the Investment Office of the Turkish Presidency and the Bilişim Vadisi under the coordination of ICYF.

In the signing ceremony, Taha Ayhan, President of ICYF sayed “ We are here to spread the importance that Turkey attaches to entrepreneurship, youth entrepreneurship, and youth economic development to the world. I believe that the center we have established here will be very useful primarily in terms of Turkey and Istannbul being and Entrepreneurship Center for young people and spreading Turkey’s success in development over the past 20 years to other countries”

The president of the Investment Office of the presidency of Turkey, Ahmet Burak Dağlıoğlu, also stressed the importance of the opening of the center for Istanbul and Turkey as the hub of entrepreneurship. He said “ As you already know, for many international events Istanbul had become the gathering point, and during the pandemic we observed the interest of international students participating in online activities, especially in studies aimed at technological entrepreneurship, who came to Turkey and continued their work here. And the establishment of this center will make istanbul a global hub for startups and entrepreneurs.”

Ahmet Serdar Ibrahimcioğlu, General Manager of Bilişim Vadisi, further emphasized the importance of the opening of the center in forming a productive environment for entrepreneurs. He said “ Our country(Turkey) has brought together the truths needed for the formation of a productive ecosystem in the name of entrepreneurship, especially in recent years. We want to present the fertile ground for the benefit of international entrepreneurs in our country.”