1 November 2022 was a special day for the MediaMarkt Turkey and Hackquarters teams, a Demoday of the 5th MediaMarkt Startup Challenge; this year, supported by Google, Index Grup, and ZIP. Since 2018 MediaMarkt Startup Challenge has brought together entrepreneurs, who are shaping technologies of the future today, and the retail world. The innovation program aims to enrich customer experience; and boost the most innovative solutions and ideas in the retail sector. 

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During the last 5 years MediaMarkt Startup Challenge, initially launched for the Turkish retail ecosystem, managed to attract 700+ startups from 50+ countries. Together with MediaMarkt technical, digital, and marketing teams, more than 100 startups discussed potential collaborations and expansion opportunities via MediaMarkt global network. 

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The program started with the welcoming speech of Yenal Gökyıldırım, CEO MediaMarkt Turkey and COO MediaMarktSaturn Retail Group. Yenal Gökyıldırım shared his excitement about the program's track record so far and mentioned how interest in the program increases every year. The 2022 Challenge working group screened 205 startups from 51 countries (with 19 in the pipeline and 10 in the final). In the previous four batches, the program has recorded 525 applications, 268 in Retail Sales Technologies, 145 in Corporate Digitization Processes, and 54 in After Sales Technologies. Yenal Gökyıldırım also emphasized that former winners of the program (such as BuyBuddy, Udentify, B2Metrics, AssistBox, Qumpara) have become their key solution partners for significant processes in their operations, which is the major value created due to this challenge.

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Later on, the best startups of 2022 took the stage to pitch their solutions.

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Here are the 10 startups pitched during the challenge:

blits: Conversational AI Platform combining the AI power of Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, IBM, Rasa, Wit, Amazon, Stanford, Nuance, and more

Korra: Platform for product assistants that consumers can talk to, ask questions and receive instructions‍

heybooster: Provider of analytical tools to e-commerce companies to make better digital marketing decisions

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Oriient: Indoor Positioning without beacons and WiFi and installing anything in the building and power smart retail, smart buildings, IoT, and AR applications

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‍Ottobo: Robotics company that revolutionizes and democratizes autonomous mobile robots landscape, which builds collaborative AMRs that work in harmony with human workforces

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Pivony: Platform that uncovers valuable insights through the vast processing capabilities of artificial intelligence

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Quin: Artificial intelligence product that allows e-commerce companies to predict the intentions of their visitors in real-time and enable companies to take more personal and people-oriented action accordingly

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Varsapp: Platform where people can safely rent daily items from users and companies

Vispera: Image recognition and analytics company providing retailers and suppliers with store and team execution insights

Vouchery.io: Promo automation platform that gives marketers the AI tools they need to scale their promotional strategy

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Drumroll, please!

The winners of the MediaMarkt Startup Challenge are Oriient from Israel, Varsap from Turkey, and Vouchery.io from Poland. Congratulations to the winners and all the startups who participated in the MediaMarkt Startup Challenge! Hackquarters celebrates your success with MediaMarkt and follows up on the next success stories with the partners!

See you next year!

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