From “Idea to Business” supported by Azercell held startup tours in Tovuz and Baku

From “Idea to Business” Project supported by the Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies, jointly with Public Association “Regional Development” of Heydar Aliyev Foundation, Azerbaijan Youth Foundation, The United Nations Development Programme, companies “Azercell Telecom” LLC and “Microsoft” continues its startup tours. The next tour aimed at supporting the expansion of the startup movement and implementation of citizens’ innovative ideas was held in Tovuz. More than 100 young participants from not only Tovuz, but also Gazakh, Shamkir, Goranboy, Tartar, Gadabay, Yevlakh and other adjacent districts joined the tour, which was organized in Tovuz for the first time. The informative part of the event enlightened the participants about the concept, goals and targets of the project. The session was proceeded with the competition among the applicants and the jury announced the winners. Top three winners of the competition were “Share my goal”, “Bacarıqlı əllər” (“Skilled hands’), “Görən gözlər” (“Seeing eyes”), respectively.

After Tovuz, within the confines of the project next startup competition which covered universities, was held in Baku. Up to 10 teams from various universities presented their projects to the jury in the startup marathon arranged in “ADA” University. Students from Baku State University, Azerbaijan Technical University, Azerbaijan Architectural and Construction University, Azerbaijan State Oil and Industry University, Baku Engineering University, “ADA” University, Azerbaijan Medical University and Western Caspian University attended competition. About 50 startup projects were presented to the jury during three days. “NanoDesal”, “AntiAge şirəsi” (“AntiAge extrate”), “HealWith”, “Boomerang”, “AgroShare”, “Plan to plant”, “Game of war and modern technologies”, “Palliativ qayğı” (“Palliative Care”) and “Buqələmun” (“Chameleon”) projects were selected as finalists. It is worth noting that, the projects will be further evaluated by the jury upon different criteria, such as uniqueness, market potential, payback period, period required for the development of prototype, the capacity of realization and top three winners will be announced to the public soon.

The winners of this competition together with winners from 12 districts will have the opportunity to join “Innocamp”, which will be held in late August of the current year. Three top champions will be announced in the National Final competition to be held in October. Winners will be honored by the organizers and partners and get financial support to turn their ideas into business. Champions and the winners who ranked the 1st place from each district will have a chance to exhibit their projects to the attendees and investors at the 25^th Anniversary Azerbaijan International Telecommunications, Innovations and High Technologies Exhibition Bakutel 2019, to be held in October.

Notably, startup tours were held in 8 regions, 16 universities and 3 general educational institutions in the country last year. Within 7 months, over 2 thousand people from various cities and regions of the country took part in the startup marathon.

It should be noted that, Barama Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center provided the mentoring support to the teams. Supported by Azercell and PASHA Bank Barama Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center has provided assistance to several projects and startups to turn into independent companies. Being the first business incubator of the country, the center initiated holding a number of trainings and workshops related to entrepreneurship and information technologies and hosted various events in this field.

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The leader of the mobile communication industry, the largest taxpayer and the biggest investor of the non-oil sector of Azerbaijan “Azercell Telecom” LLC was founded in 1996. With 49 percent share of Azerbaijan’s mobile telecom market Azercell’s network covers 99.1 percent of the territory (excluding the occupied territories) and 99.8 percent of population of the country. Currently, 4.5 million subscribers choose Azercell services. Azercell has pioneered an important number of innovations in Azerbaijan, including GSM technology, advance payment system, mobile internet services, Metro coverage, 24/7 call center service, 7 day/week Front Office service, M2M services, one-stop-shopping approach Azercell Express offices, mobile customer services, Online Customer Care and Social Media Customer Care services, mobile e-signature service “ASAN Imza” etc. Azercell deployed first 4G – LTE services in Azerbaijan in 2012. According to the results of mobile network quality and wireless coverage mapping surveys by international systems, Azercell’s network demonstrated the best results among the mobile operators of Azerbaijan. Azercell is the only company in Azerbaijan and CIS region which has been awarded Gold Certificate of International “Investors in People” Standard.