Many Syrians have found themselves in Turkey, where the environment is foreign, the circumstances are different, and things are difficult. But these things are not a hindrance to entrepreneurs, who start from scratch and make their way to success at a steady pace. We have come to you today with the stories of five successful Syrian projects in Turkey, to draw on their success stories and understand what has prompted them to start their startups, and what obstacles are in their way. let’s start.
Takwin: A pioneering experience in supporting leading companies in the Arab world
The wave of startups started in the West, but soon Arab initiators and entrepreneurs joined in. But there are several obstacles between Arab entrepreneurs and their dreams. The most important of these is that the Arab environment in general still lacks the necessary expertise to support this sector of business, which deprives it of major deals except in very rare cases.
One of the obstacles is the lack of a qualified and experienced teams to manage this type of business, whether in business or management, or at the technical level as well as marketing. This is why many wonderful ideas fail while young.
Based on this need, Takwin was established in 2016 to support entrepreneurship in Istanbul, and has set in motion the establishment of supporting entities for startups in the Arab world.
Takwin accompanies projects through the diverse expertise of their team throughout its life from the stage of the idea, to the last stages, through many services such as Business Design, Product Design, Execution and Management services.
Takwin owns an independent development division. This division uses agile methodology in project management software called Agile Methodology, which builds the product in several stages and short periods of time, each stage producing a distinct product with additional features. In addition, the customer is kept informed of the progress of the project.
The company has a specialized team in the most important stage of the project: marketing. It provides specialized marketing services for start-up companies, depending on the stages the startup is at. These services are as follows:
1. Early Stage Partner
2. Market penetration (Growth Partner)
3. Full Marketing Partnership
Takwin has a clear message to transfer the Arab entrepreneurial experience to the world, and this is what makes us responsible for supporting the efforts of this creative company in order to achieve its goal of seeing Arab projects that match and even surpass those of the world.
Read more about the Takwin’s experience from here.
The Syrian digital school: a great effort and a modern solution to the problems of education
We, Syrians, are most in need of digital education, as traditional schools are no longer functioning for many reasons. Yet, we do not have them. But this was before the Syrian digital school, as this school came as a modern and attractive alternative that offers educational material to students everywhere, implemented in a modern manner that is comparable to global counterparts.
The Digital School is a modern integrated educational system that is a virtual alternative to a traditional school starting from the first grade and ending in high school. This school offers the syllabus, which is a developed and improved Syrian curriculum in various forms, including text, audio and video. Students can access this material through the various digital school platforms, whether online through the website, the mobile application or video channels.
Students can also access these materials via CDs and many other methods. The content of the school is, as we have said, visual, written or audible.
The digital school is based on a creative team that aims to make access to education easier for Syrian students. The team is comprised of Mr. Mahmoud Sukkar, co-founder and CEO, and Mr. Abdullah Zangair, General Supervisor.
The digital school has produced 2,700 educational video courses at the highest level should receive all the help and support, and here comes your mission. It is the responsibility of everyone to ensure that the digital school achieves its mission to educate 2 million Syrian students directly and 3 million others indirectly. These figures include refugees in all countries of the world and the Arab community in foreign countries who cannot learn in their mother tongue, as well as those in need of an integrated curriculum presented in the best form.
Read more about the Syrian Digital School from here.
WE.Alloy: building an Arab entrepreneurial society in Turkey
We return to supporting entrepreneurship with Alloy. We spoke in the first paragraph about the problems that entrepreneurs can face today. But being a Syrian entrepreneur in Turkey can double the problems. Where the new environment and difficult circumstances play a role in the failure of an emerging company, which makes the presence of the team WE.Alloy urgent need and refuge where many find their way.
Founded in 2016 by Shadi Al Zain, MBA from Autonoma University in Barcelona, with more than 15 years of experience in management, marketing and entrepreneurship, the team now has many disciplines and expertise in management and strategic planning, enterprise development and entrepreneurship.
The team puts all its expertise at the disposal of startups, emerging enterprises and factories, with the aim of supporting and developing them to achieve their goals with high efficiency and rapid growth.
The work of the team on three axes, the first includes management and executive consulting, the second axis is economic feasibility studies, and the last is, of course, supporting entrepreneurship and emerging companies.
You can visit the team’s website, or its Facebook page, and watch this video for more details:
The team seeks to achieve its objectives in providing the youth with the necessary skills to establish their own projects, support them in planning and implementing their projects, and exchange ideas and information among them, thus achieving an entrepreneurial society that benefits each other, and success will certainly be its ally. Here comes your role in supporting this team and providing help.
Read more about WE.Alloy from here.
Bevol: a social media platform characterized by community work and volunteering
The Bevol platform has come to light as a social network for community work and volunteering. The platform is now available in five languages, Arabic, English and French. In addition to Turkish and German, and the company is adding other languages, which will be available soon. Bevol is fully independent and therefore does not belong to any party, country or nation.
The platform was announced on 5/12/2017, which coincides with World Volunteer Day. After several efforts and developments at the idea and platform level, the beta launch was announced on the International Day of Community Responsibility, on 25/9/2018.
Bevol collects all volunteer opportunities in one place, so anyone can find the right opportunity with ease. Several criteria are available for you to choose from, such as: location, time, timing, area of interest, type and name of the organization with which he wishes to volunteer, as well as the nature of voluntary participation, whether by distance or by personal presence.
Documentation is also one of the most important benefits a volunteer receives when registering in Bevol, where documentation allows the volunteer to obtain a certificate, which can be submitted to anyone who requests it, and thus the Bevol volunteer can build a rich resume that helps them to appear professionally before others.
You can register in Bvol in three ways: as a volunteer, as an organization or as a company.
The Bevol platform is simply a new vision for volunteering, an international platform that will be a new Arab imprint in the global space.
Read more about the Bevol platform here.
Namaa: Software solutions in various aspects of life
A company cannot grow today without being on the World Wide Web, which in turn can not be achieved without having a website or application for smartphones or both. This is what led the entrepreneurs, Mr. Mujahid Aqil and Mr. Maarouf Babli to establish Namaa Software Solutions.
The company was established to push the development of the software industry in the region with the latest scientific methods and to instill the idea of creativity and perfection in this industry based on cadres with a distinguished level of education and experience in the software market, offering its customers in the field of web applications and smartphone applications the best solutions and fulfill their requests accurately and efficiently.
The most important characteristic of Namaa is the clear scientific vision, and harnessing the latest and finest information technologies to serve its customers and satisfy them. Namaa is at the forefront of creating and developing innovative software ideas in the region.
Among these projects that are collaborating with Namaa are 8rbtna, which documents the lives of Syrian expatriates, and Tarjemly Live, which tries to alleviate the language barriers for expatriates in the host country, as well as Jou3an and Namaa for e-learning and many more.
You can view these projects and many more when visiting Namaa’s website or visiting the company’s Facebook page.
These were five of the best projects initiated by Syrian entrepreneurs in Turkey, which brought together leadership and creativity to be an honorable image of the Syrians there. These projects contribute to securing employment opportunities and supporting the Turkish economy, in addition to being creative stations that were launched by Syria.