Twelve projects were awarded prizes in the Coronathon Turkey fielded by leading entrepreneurs, universities, non-governmental organisations, ministries and private companies in Turkey as stakeholders to generate solutions to the problems caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The highest score is achieved by Medibook, a tele-health initiative that enables provision of health service, through remote visual monitoring models, to patients who are not wanted at hospitals but need health services.

The evaluation of projects was completed at Coronathon Turkey organised by leading entrepreneurs in Turkey by coming together in such a short time as 48 hours to generate ideas in various fields against the coronavirus pandemic. Twelve projects were awarded prizes in the event fielded on 21-22 March 2020 by leading entrepreneurs, universities, non-governmental organisations, ministries and private companies in Turkey as stakeholders to generate solutions to the problems in the challenging times facing our country.

REMOTE HEALTH SERVICE PROVIDER MEDIBOOK PASSED THE POST IN CORONATHON

The highest score in Coronathon Turkey was achieved by Medibook, a tele-health initiative that enabled provision of health service, through remote visual monitoring models, to patients who were not wanted at hospitals but needed health services. Medibook was also awarded the jury special prize in addition to the cash prize of 20,000 TRY. The other 11 initiatives were not intra-ranked and each received a cash prize of 10,000 TRY. In addition to the cash prizes, the winners were identified for other supporting prizes offered by stakeholders including Ankara Chamber of Commerce, Ankara Chamber of Industry, Ankara Commodity Exchange, Facebook, 212 Venture Capital Fund, Gedik Yatırım and Enocta. Eczacıbaşı Group committed business development support to those successful entrepreneurs by its own evaluation, IBM offered cloud support, and Seedstar provided international accelerator support.

PARTICIPANTS ASSISTED BY MORE THAN 120 MENTORS

Searching for solutions, the event drew 1,500 contestants whose teams had the opportunity of receiving one-on-one mentoring and assistance from more than 120 highly distinguished mentors. The award-winning 12 projects will continue to receive online acceleration and mentoring assistance with support from stakeholders at the next stage, where Girişimciye Dönüş [Transforming into Entrepreneur], Workinlot and Fongogo platforms will provide support.

Noting that the most prominent feature of Coronathon was its ownership by a large network of stakeholders, Dr. Oğuzhan Aygören, Spokesperson for Coronathon Turkey Initiative and Director of Entrepreneurship Centre of Bosphorus University, said: “As a platform which managed to bring together so diverse stakeholders and participants in such a short time, we believe in maintaining and augmenting such precious collaboration. We invite all who wish to be a part of the solution, or indeed, the solution itself, to the Coronathon Turkey Initiative.

Aygören thanked particularly Adil Oran, Berat Kjamil, Cem Leon Menase, Cengizhan Öztürk, Efe Kethüda, İsmail Metin, Koray Bahar, Sezai Hazır, Sure Köse Ulutaş, Timur Sırt and Zeynep Erden Bayazıt who put in enormous efforts in realising the organisation.

CEYDA ALPAY FROM UNDP TURKEY PARTICIPATED AS MENTOR

Ceyda Alpay, Head of Experimentation of UNDP Turkey Accelerator Lab Turkey provided mentorship to teams in Coronathon.

Alpay said: “The virtual mentorship worked quite well. The questions through the mentorship sessions made me think and brought hope. I believe my mentorship provided the “Leave no one behind” approach as well as encouraged them to rethink about the innovative element in their project. Some of the projects are in the ideation phase whereas some of them have already launched their demo. Getting familiar with all the project ideas also enabled me to consider the potential to combine UNDP’s efforts on COVID-19 with some of these start-ups or teams.”

UNIQUE COLLABORATION OF STAKEHOLDERS

Setting out with the motto “Be A Part of the Solution”, Coronathon Turkey uniquely brought together many valuable stakeholders to find entrepreneurs who offer solutions through creative ideas to social, infrastructural and logistical problems created by the coronavirus pandemic. Ministry of Industry and Technology, TUBITAK, TOBB, Information and Communication Technologies Authority and various public agencies supported the initiative. Also involved were the entrepreneurship centres and technology transfer offices of Bosphorus University, METU and ITU. Participants from the civil society included Turkish Informatics Foundation, Habitat Association, Başlangıç Noktası [Starting Point], Technology Development Foundation of Turkey, UNDP Turkey Accelerator Lab, Endeavor Turkey, Entrepreneurship Foundion, Ashoka, İmece, Hello Tomorrow Turkey and Atölye [Atelier]

OTHER 11 AWARD WINNERS IN CORONATHON TURKEY

Biotel: An application that lists all the idle measuring equipment in Turkish universities that could be repurposed for COVID-19 testing.

Studio Canlı Dersler App: Studio Canlı Dersler App [Live Studio Courses App] is a platform for experts to offer live courses on a wide range of topics, from fitness to meditation, to help people better cope with the psychological strains of self-isolation.

Expona: A platform to access workshops that offer various online home-to-home experiences.

CoroWarner: An application that warns the user of potential exposure to the coronavirus if it detects they have been in close proximity to patients who tested positive for the virus.

CoronApp: A mobile application for pandemic monitoring which monitors individual contacts through Bluetooth signals, and alerts other contacts where one tests positive for the virus.

Neoanka: An artificial intelligence-assisted application which enables non-COVID-19 complaints to be classified and referred to the right specialist doctors, and patients to have online interview with specialist doctors.

Güvende Kal: Güvende Kal [Stay Safe] is an application that offers information about the size of crowds in a user’s surroundings using geolocation technology. The app also offers a check-up feature that helps users self-diagnose COVID-19 infections by comparing symptoms.

Kolkola: Kolkola [Arm-in-Arm] is a marketplace for “volunteers” that brings together volunteers, NGOs and sponsors. It aims for example to serve senior citizens who are home-restricted due to COVID-19 with shopping.

CoGuard: A chatbot application that brings together specialists and agencies to answer health-related questions and responses about COVID-19 and similar health conditions.

Fact Checker: A self-explanatory app that helps users check the factual accuracy of common coronavirus myths spreading on social media.

BirCan: A platform that brings together volunteers, NGOs, municipalities, veterinaries, pet owners and other stakeholders to support street animals.

For more information on Coronathon Turkey: https://coronathonturkiye.com

For videos of 12 award-winning ideas:  https://youtu.be/r3TFkT4Zmgg