It’s official!! Startups Without Borders Are Live In Istanbul!

The launch event, held in partnership with Impact Hub Istanbul, was titled “Social Impact Summer Party,” and hosted a series of panels aimed at discussing social enterprises and impact investment in Turkey.

The main goals behind the event were to raise awareness around Social Impact, promote access to finance, inspire the next generation of impact entrepreneurs through an intimate dialogue with like-minded peers, and create networking opportunities with top impact ecosystem players in Turkey.

The event gathered key ecosystem players in the local and global impact scene, including Can Atacik, founder of Alethina Capital, Selen Ucak, Entrepreneurship Lead at the Refugee Investment Network RIN, Onur ilhan, General Secretory at EDYK, Semih Boyaci, co-founder of Impact Hub Istanbul,  Ayman Ghoneam founder of AG’z DEV, and Abdulla Hakmi from Building Markets Turkey, Dogan Celik, Director at Innovation for Development and Amal Jibril, Founder at Migration Jam

The first panel, “Social Impact Innovation: Key Players, Trends & Opportunities in the Istanbul ecosystem,” explored the social impact space in Istanbul to an audience of 75 entrepreneurs, changemakers, and impact leaders,

Followed by a second panel titled “Social Impact: Capital Investing & Fundraising,” which explored the impact investment realm in Turkey and gave the audience practical tips on how to raise capital for Impact driven startups.

After the panel discussions, 5 startups got on stage to pitch their businesses, followed by a networking session for people to connect, mingle and collaborate.

The Startups that pitched were:

• Podlines: The digital incubator for podcast creators, that embraces, supports, connects, and provides everything they need in one place.
• Yolo: A space for entertaining, expressing, connecting, learning, and exchanging experiences. It consists of an Art Cafe, a drama and music Stage, and a training center that provides various courses and workshops
• Pooly: A mobile carpooling app for university students developed by using AI and deep learning to connect drivers to passengers that are traveling on the same route.
• Can Bahçe: A social enterprise that aims to change eating habits for the better and raise healthy individuals by providing healthy microgreens that can be grown at home with minimal use of water, compostable waste, and eco-friendly pots.

At Startups Without Borders Istanbul, We’re setting off to build a global ecosystem of entrepreneurs on the move by connecting the most ambitious entrepreneurs with resources to grow their business while providing investors with an entry point to under-the-radar startups with disruptive potential.

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