Five Turkish firms to attend Obama’s entrepreneurship summit

Five Turkish entrepreneurs reflecting diverse business backgrounds, from food delivery to high tech, have been selected to participate in the U.S. Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship. A global initiative launched by President Obama in Cairo in June, the summit initiative will take place in Washington, D.C. in the spring.

In his Cairo speech, President Obama announced he would "host a summit on entrepreneurship to identify how we can deepen ties between business leaders, foundations and social entrepreneurs in the United States and Muslim communities around the world." All together 150 entrepreneurs from Muslim countries, President Obama and other high-ranking U.S. government officials will participate in the summit.

The companies to represent Turkey in the summit include wireless network router AirTies, online food delivery service Yemek Sepeti, mobile banking applications company Pozitron, science, innovation and technology policy advisory firm Technopolis, and education management firm Deulcom International.

Three of the companies – AirTies, Yemek Sepeti and Pozitron – are part of the Endeavor network. Endeavor is a support organization that focuses on high-impact entrepreneurs in emerging markets.

Ali Koç, member of the Endeavor management board, noted that five firms were chosen among 16 companies. "The requirement was that the firms would make a difference, create a new market or launch a product that changes the dynamics of the market, such as Pozitron and AirTies," Koç noted.

Bulent Celebi, chief executive officer and founder of AirTies, who resided in the United States for 30 years prior to returning to Turkey to found AirTies, noted that events like the upcoming summit, will contribute to giving a more accurate image of Turkey overseas. "There is a lot of prejudice against Turks in the United States and it is important to tackle it," he said. "When establishing AirTies and looking for investors in the United States I was actually told that "The idea is great but there is no technology in Turkey for this. If there is more cooperation on this kind of prejudice we can do away with them," Celebi said.

Fatih İşbecer, founder of Pozitron, noted there used to be a similar prejudice against Turkey's textile sector. "There used to be an opinion outside of Turkey that no textile brands can come from Turkey. This prejudice was proven wrong. We now need to attract the attention of the technology sector in Turkey and put an end to these prejudices," İşbecer said.

Ebru Özdemir, a member of the Endeavor management board, noted there is a major need to create new jobs in Turkey in the future. "Some 13 million youths will enter Turkey's labor market in the coming five years. At the moment, some 700,000 new jobs open each year, but in fact, this figure should be doubled. We are ready to support more entrepreneurs to expand their businesses," she said.