İş Bankası Agricultural Entrepreneurship Competition 2020
The AgriTech Competition of the Year
by Yekta Kuseyrioğlu
Empowering the Future of Agri-Food Sector
As Kök Projekt, we are passionate about food, agriculture, and water. We are an innovation partner for the food, agriculture, water sector companies, and an agri-food startup accelerator. Last year, with the support of İş Bankası, we had organized the first-ever AgriTech Competition of Turkey, İş Bankası Agricultural Entrepreneurship Competition. İş Bankası as one of the major supporter of innovation in the agriculture sector in Turkey, has always supported agricultural innovation through their many projects and platforms for the digitalization of the industry such as ImeceMobil and Digital Agriculture Project.
This year, even in these unprecedented times, İş Bankası continued its support on innovation for the agricultural sector, and we organized the second İş Bankası Agricultural Entrepreneurship Competition on 14th-16th November. In our second year, İş Bankası Agricultural Entrepreneurship Competition aimed to ensure the participation of technology-based innovative startups within the sector and contribute to the scaling of these initiatives. As Global Pandemic continues to reign in our lives, all aspects of the organization were conducted online.
The Competition
We face many critical issues with our agricultural system — climate change, food waste, water scarcity, hunger and obesity, and most recently, the Global Pandemic. Thus, innovation and entrepreneurship are more critical than ever. Turkey’s leading Agricultural Entrepreneurship Competition, in its second year, brought together top agri-tech startups, entrepreneurs with sector experts, and this year all the event was online.
The Timeline
We’ve started with our Open Call for startups to join in for the competition on October 19th, and our call lasted around three weeks, which ended on November 6th, 2020. Our timeline featured:
- October 19th, 2020 Start of the Open Call
- November 6th, 2020 Application Deadline
- November 9th, 2020 Top 10 Finalists Announced
- November 14th-15th, 2020 Online Bootcamp
- November 16th, 2020 Demo Day
The Applications & Online Entrepreneurship Bootcamp
This year, through our Open Call, we had 385 applications, of which can be seen as 200 are in idea stage entrepreneurs and 185 in early-stage startups, among 61 cities of Turkey.
Turkey has a young and tech-savvy population. Before we kicked-off our digital campaign, based on our databases and our network, we knew that there were many exciting developments and startups within the AgriTech market. The increased interest in the application process showed that we weren’t wrong; Turkey has massive potential for an agri-food startup ecosystem across the country.
We were quite happy to see that many startups lead the way for new products and technology development, especially within the Academia Ecosystem. Thus, for the Selection Committee, it was tough to decide who should be the Finalists. The criteria, as we mentioned on our website, was focused on three main pillars:
- The MVP of the Startup
- The Experience of the Team
- The Scalability of the Business Model
At the end of the selection process, ten startups were selected among the many applicants. Ten teams were chosen to join the bootcamp and announced on November 9th. These ten startups were:
The selected startups participated in training sessions and mentorship programs given by sector representatives. While on the entrepreneurial journey, we know that it’s helpful and impactful to get guidance and support from a mentor. Thus, we chose our mentors, considering their industry experience and also their knowledge on the mentorship topics. The bootcamp also featured a series of training sessions on agricultural technologies and patent trends, sustainability, marketing, and globalization provided by sector representatives and experts with proven experience and enthusiasm in entrepreneurship development.
This year, most of us have had limited opportunities to travel and meet face-to-face with business partners or sector players. However, hosting a virtual event allowed us to have experts from Singapore Agri-Food Ecosystem. We hosted Dr. Matthew Zhao from Big Idea Ventures and Vandana Dhaul from GROW for our training session. It was a great pleasure to listen to them by sharing their work on empowering agri-food entrepreneurs globally.
Demo Day
Demo Day took place on November 16th and was streamed live on our YouTube channel. The opening speech was made by Şahismail Şimşek, the Deputy General Manager of İş Bankası. After his valuable speech focusing on supporting innovation on agriculture, we had the keynote from Prof. Dr. Gökhan Özertan, a professor from Boğaziçi University, just like last year. After a year of unprecedented change, it was a great privilege to hear Prof. Dr. Özertan’s strategic insights into the challenges, opportunities, and priorities for the agriculture sector.
Throughout the pitching session, the teams introduced themselves, shared the basic idea of their businesses, and explain what makes their businesses unique. The Jury asked questions to unlock more about the scalability, viability, and potential of each technology. Our Jury featured the crucial ecosystem players of the agri-food sector varying from the corporate, governmental, and entrepreneurship ecosystem. Our Jury for this year was:
- Şahismail Şimşek — Deputy General Manager, İş Bankası
- Emrah İnce — General Manager, Tekfen Agri
- Bahadır Açık — General Manager, Anadolu Etap
- Ayşin Işıkgece — General Manager, TİGEM
- Selami Düz — General Manager, Maxis
- Ömer Erkmen — Lead Mentor, Workup Entrepreneurship Program
- Shirley Kastın — Co-Founder & CFO, Kök Projekt
After a rigorous evaluation of 10 pitches, 3 startups were selected as winners. The winner and runner-up teams had also get the chance to participate in the Workup Entrepreneurship program.
Meet The Winners
- Trimail
Trimail is an Agricultural BioTech company, with a motto of “smart bug, smart farmer,” based in Ankara, Turkey. The company is specialized in biotech focused pest control solutions. Biological control is a method of controlling pests such as insects, mites, weeds, and plant diseases using other organisms.
The company is established in Ankara University TeknoCity and produces beneficial bugs by 100% domestic technology. These bugs are effectively used to replace pesticides on vineyards and orchards such as walnuts and apples. Due to the use of beneficial insects, the spraying use is reduced by 50%.
Trimail also received funding from TAGEM AR-GE Support Project and TUBİTAK 2244 Industry Project on biological control. They aim to be a world leader in biological control by combining academia’s experienced- corporate and public sector.
For more information: http://www.biyolojiktarim.com/trimail/
2. Up-Tech Labs
Up-Tech Labs is an AgriTech company specialized in smart gardens, based in Izmir, Turkey. The company uses aeroponic and hydroponic systems to grow foods. While arable land will decrease significantly, and a water and food crisis is expected by 2050, Up-Tech Labs believe that soilless agriculture is the future of food. Thus, they developed aeroponic and hydroponic systems to grow food.
The startup’s system permits to grow food by using 95% less water than conventional farming. In 2018, Up-Tech Labs received a TÜBİTAK Grant and established their facility at Izmir Economy University. Since then, they continue to grow their research and development area.
For more information: http://up-techlabs.com/
3. BioArt
BioArt is an Agricultural Biotech startup based in Ankara, Turkey. According to BioArt, Turkey is the world’s second-biggest producer of honey, and one of the biggest problems that the beekeeping sector is facing is Nosema Illness.
The company developed a thyme-based extract, which is very useful and a cheap solution against Nosema illnesses. Thyme extract is an environmentally and economically sustainable method for tackling one of the most significant diseases of the beekeeping sector. The company aims to reach beekeepers and help them in their farming journey in a sustainable way.
For more information: http://bioart-arge.com/
For any of your questions or feedback, you can shoot us an email to:
info@kokprojekt.com
