Sahne XL: An Event Bringing Together Entrepreneurs and Investors

Event Where Entrepreneurs Meet Investors: Sahne XL İstanbul Ticaret Odası Chairman and BTM Board Chairman Şekib Avdagiç, delivering the opening speech at Sahne XL, BTM's major event, said: "We now have a new goal with BTM. We will create this intersection, this meeting at a global scale. Thus Sahne XL will gain global quality. Our ventures will meet with domestic and foreign investors." The Commercializing Knowledge Center (BTM), which operates at the intersection point of the entrepreneurship ecosystem, closed 2022 with its largest event, Sahne XL. İstanbul Ticaret Odası Chairman and BTM Board Chairman Şekib Avdagiç attended the event, organized under the theme of 'Intersection,' and delivered the opening remarks. Beginning his remarks with "In 2022, we worked like ants to increase entrepreneurship in our country," Avdagiç continued: "We endeavored to turn the post-pandemic period, especially 2022, into days of breakthrough. We are pleased to see that our efforts have not gone unrewarded, and to carry Turkey toward 'a future illuminated by the light of enterprise.' Noting that they celebrated BTM's fifth anniversary this year, Avdagiç said: "We made our Commercializing Knowledge Center the flagship of our breakthrough period. To the extent that BTM, in our era, increased its physical capacity by 10 times and its venture valuations by 506 times. Undoubtedly, the greatest work we have done under this roof is to permanently integrate the idea of 'commercializing knowledge' into Turkish entrepreneurship and investment culture."

"BTM covered 55 years' distance in 5 years"

Emphasizing that the Commercializing Knowledge Center is the first and still only entrepreneurship and startup center established by a chamber of commerce in the world, İTO Chairman Avdagiç stated: "There is a reason we have covered 55 years' distance in 5 years. We can only increase our competitiveness through a technological leap. This is only possible by turning our technological leap into 'a cascading breakthrough.' The only means of achieving this is entrepreneurship, keeping our spirit of enterprise alive and turning it into practice. That is what we, as Turkey's largest business organization, are doing through BTM. We are creating a serious ecosystem by putting our hand to the stone. Those of you present here today are the most vivid witnesses to this. We held this year's final Sahne XL event under the theme of 'intersection.' Because here 'the paths of entrepreneurs and investors' intersect and meet. We believe that as our path intersects with startups, our future will take shape faster. Now we have a new goal: We will create this intersection/meeting at a global scale. Thus Sahne XL will gain global quality. Our ventures will meet with domestic and foreign investors. Turkish ventures will deliver more value to the world," he said.  

"BTM will have a stronger presence on global platforms"

  BTM General Manager İbrahim Elbaşı, noting that they celebrated their fifth anniversary this year under the motto The Center of Enterprise, said: "In terms of events, we signed off on a new concept this year. We organized 'Sahne Kurumsal' (Corporate Sahne), an event where our entrepreneurs and corporate business world leaders come together, for the first time last week and it received great reception. We designed this event with a somewhat more sectoral perspective. In Sahne Kurumsal, we particularly aim to bring corporate-specific needs together with relevant startups and generate productive collaborations from these meetings going forward. We received very positive feedback in this regard. God willing, it will continue. BTM is in a different league now. We believe BTM should now be more active in the global arena as well. With this aim, we are open to international partnerships. In the coming days, we will announce a program in this direction. Now BTM will have a stronger presence on global platforms," he said.

Two panels with 16 presentations

  At the event, a startup investment discussion titled "What Changed" moderated by BTM General Manager İbrahim Elbaşı, featuring Domino Ventures Managing Partner Mustafa Kopuk and 500 Emerging Europe Managing Partner Enis Hulli was held; and a panel titled "Web Evolution: Is Web3 Our Future or a Type of Hype" moderated by Turkey Metaverse Platform Chairman Prof. Dr. Levent Eraslan, featuring Actor and Wideangle Co-Founder Birand Tunca, Wideangle Co-Founder Çağlan Tanrıverdi and Sandbox MENA and Turkey Country Manager Arslan Kirean was conducted. At the event, 16 ventures graduated from the Pre-Incubation and Incubation programs took the stage before investors and presented their work. A total of 36 BTM ventures, including those participating in Sahne XL, also had stands in the entrepreneur hall. The ventures that took the stage at the event are as follows: Binderclub: A social media platform where users can freely express their ideas anonymously within 12 hours, putting ideas rather than people in the foreground. Oniki: A hybrid event technology that performs AI-powered B2B matching. Holograt Metaverse: A venture developed with Web3 infrastructure for the Metaverse and blockchain; focused on NFT in culture, art and entertainment, and using blockchain-based finance in some strategic sectors for business process solutions. ÇORAP: Online Organic Advertising Network Project (ÇORAP) – an AI-powered advertising publication, monitoring and tracking platform that operates on mobile and web, enabling advertisers over the internet to present their ads to target audiences wanting to earn money through tasks and to assign tasks from end to end. SynthData: An AI-based synthetic data generation platform. NFS Functional Food: A venture that enriches everyday foods with functional nutrients obtained from natural sources through natural processes, elevating food beyond nutrition and producing functional foods. Memoritory: A venture that offers personalized mobile games that people can gift to each other and that digitizes corporate training, marketing and orientation processes, increasing productivity and interaction, offering custom mobile games for corporations. Grawindy: An innovative core wind technology that is effective even at low wind levels due to its operating characteristics, does not carry fragmentation risk at extremely high winds, does not require composite materials, has no need for braking systems, can be operated independently of wind direction, can have its shape designed according to need, can be installed close to energy use areas, and offers easy operation and low cost. E-Loops Akademi: An education-focused video content platform where teachers and students meet. Selfprof: A specialized platform offering self-service web and marketing solutions by profession. Tamly: A platform that identifies the right target audience and enables reaching potential customers. Dizel Enerji: A venture that transforms heat production centers of facilities using fossil fuels and, if available, their electricity generation units into dual-fuel systems that can also burn biomass fuels, namely renewable energy, through its patented technology. From Your Eyes: A mobile application that, through the collaboration of humans and artificial intelligence, provides both fast and quality visual explanations to visually impaired users. Hydrolyx: A venture providing energy conversion systems that produce green hydrogen from wastewater. TEATRONE: A venture connecting performing arts content with audiences through its broadcasting platform. Quizflight: A gamified online test platform where users create exams, add questions and share them with participants.