Turkey's largest industrial conglomerate Koç Holding and Istanbul-based high-tech investment company Inventram have made an A series investment in the startups of two formidable academicians who managed to transform their deep technology accumulation into products in Turkey and the United States.

Operating in partnership with Koç Group and Mitsui & Co. Europe PLC., Inventram, which has been investing in Turkish and global startups with successful and deep technology accumulation since 2016, this time chose Vispera in Turkey and nanoGriptech in the U.S.

Founded by Professor Aytül Erçil, Vispera has been providing solutions for image processing and data analytics in the retail industry in Turkey for a long time. The company enables physical or online stores to make sales analysis faster and error-free.

Established by Professor Metin Sitti in the U.S., nanoGriptech also draws attention with its polymer-based dry adhesive solution that will be used in many areas from textile to health and from automotive to space research. Sitti is very successful in finding solutions inspired by nature.

NanoGriptech is the first commercial manufacturer of gecko-inspired micro-structured dry adhesive ad surfaces for a wide range of applications, including wearable consumer products, semiconductors and glass handling and automotive upholstery fastening.

High-tech investment

Inventram General Manager Cem Soysal said they made their investment decision by following Turkish entrepreneurs with a history of success and technological expertise in the world and Turkey.

"We continue our investments without being affected by the pessimistic picture created by the current epidemic conditions. We have seen the future potential of these two precious companies, whose development we have been following for a long time. By providing the capital contribution needed by both companies, we have played an important role in the access of very valuable inventions to large markets," he said.

Soysal noted that they have made a significant contribution to startups to find new markets, to function properly, to operate patent, legal and financial structures. "We are also happy to contribute to Vispera's goal of establishing a sales network worldwide, opening a new era in the operational processes of retail companies. Similarly, products produced by nanoGriptech with a patent-protected dry adhesive technique developed with a special method offer innovative solutions to both manufacturers and end consumers."

Processing images, analyzing smart sales

With the solution it offers in image processing, from shelf order to online product placement in physical or online stores, Vispera serves many global and local retail companies and instantly informs whether the shelves are full.

Developing image recognition-oriented technologies for retail companies, it enables manufacturers to easily and reliably monitor and control the visibility, shelf shares, stock status and placement of their products at retail points.

Erçil explained the process of this investment, which saves time and money with technology that provides much faster, more detailed and accurate results than traditional methods based on human control.

"We are pleased to have received the support of Koç Holding and Inventram on this journey that we have set out to offer the image recognition and data analytics technology we have developed as a solution to all retail stores and manufacturer brands of the world. With the support of this investment in the upcoming period, we will proceed with stronger steps toward our goal of becoming the country's leading global artificial intelligence company," Erçil said.

Gecko-inspired dry adhesive

Sitti founded and developed the Setex technology with inspiration from the hair on Gecko lizard's feet that allow it to stick to surfaces. Within the scope of the U.S.-based nanoGriptech, the technology leads the way with the features of dry adhesive products that provide a strong adherence effect on all surfaces.

Sitti decided to use the idea that emerged while developing wall-climbing robots in DARPA in the U.S. into a successful venture. NanoGriptech offers solutions to the market of $3 billion with three different products of Setex brand that does not contain chemicals and does not leave any traces on the surface. Speaking about the new investment the company received he said:

"Thanks to the A-Series investment led by Inventram and Koç Holding, nanoGriptech will be able to launch its products in many new sectors and further increase its production volume," Sitti said. "I am quite pleased and excited that my scientific research has left the laboratory and turned into a new product called Setex that will create radical innovations in our daily life. I believe that we will take important steps with this cooperation."

NanoGriptech provides strong adhesion to almost any smooth surface, using dry intermolecular forces instead of wet chemical adhesion, to form a series of fibrillar structures with mushroom-shaped ends with a diameter measured in microns each. This adhesion is physical, thus has thousands of applications. NanoGriptech's expert team has won numerous research awards and financing from many institutions in the U.S., including the National Science Foundation, NASA, the U.S. Department of Defense, Innovation Works, Idea Foundry, Thiel Foundation, and the PA NanoMaterials Center for Commercialization.

'Secure' email from Türk Telekom

With widespread work from home, remote access to critical data can threaten companies' data security. With its corporate email service, Turkey's leading information and communication technologies company Türk Telekom maintains its company data with the assurance of Türk Telekom Data Center.

According to the National Center for Cyber Incidents Response (USOM) cyberattacks that exceeded 136,000 with a rapid increase in 2019, brought the data security needs of companies to the agenda in recent days when working from home increased due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Türk Telekom added corporate email to secure data center services. In the email service that stores the users' data domestically with the assurance of the data center, besides antivirus and antispam filtering features, mail traffic between servers is also encrypted. Emails that are backed up daily are stored in Turkey's high-security data center.

Large number of transactions

Corporate customers can perform many operations such as creating an email account, deleting, forwarding an email, adding a corporate signature, creating a group email via a single admin panel with Türk Telekom email service. Thanks to the transfer tool in the webmail interface, Türk Telekom can easily carry its existing emails to the email service. It also performs operations such as calendar display, task management, content filtering, rule definition through the interface and easy access to all emails thanks to its mobile smart device compatibility.

Flexible package

Türk Telekom email offers two different options for corporate customers: standard or flexible package. Corporate customers can choose from standard packages in different quotas from 1 GB to 50 GB, depending on the number and needs of users. Within the scope of flexible packages, customers can benefit from advantageous prices with options starting from 40 GB quota and 25 email accounts. Customers can distribute the total quota they purchase to the users as they wish via the admin panel.