EXPO Capital Quest

Twenty-four women entrepreneurs from across Europe and Central Asia, will meet in Istanbul, Türkiye, to pitch their business ideas to a group of investors at the EXPO Capital Quest event to be held on July 6 at The Seed, an auditorium located in Sakip Sabanci Museum.

EXPO Capital Quest is the last phase of the Women’s Entrepreneurship EXPO, a platform to promote women’s entrepreneurship in the region that provides women entrepreneurs, investors and private sector representatives a space for networking and collaboration, peer learning, capacity building and business development.

At the event, the selected women entrepreneurs, who have undergone tailored training and personalized mentoring as part of the Women’s Entrepreneurship EXPO, will meet a group of 8 investors from the region to pitch their business ideas. In turn, investors will provide feedback and investment leads to the best pitches.

Women entrepreneurs representing Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo^[1], North Macedonia, Serbia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Moldova, Ukraine, Georgia and Türkiye will participate in the event pitching businesses ranging from food and beverages, textiles and crafts to online services.

The investors participating in EXPO Capital Quest are Tetiana Honcharenko (Ukraine), Laura Aldone (Lithuania), Zurab Lalazashvili (Georgia), Ecem Altiok and Ahu Serter (Turkiye), Keo Sar (Serbia), Robin Zimbakov (North Macedonia) and Olga Melniciuc (Moldova).

The event will be hosted in English. A summary video featuring the highlights will air on CNN Türk in July/August.

EXPO Capital Quest is organized by UN Women Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia in partnership with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and Yıldız Holding as part of the Women’s Entrepreneurship Accelerator supported by Mary Kay Inc.

Members of the media interested in covering the event can send an email to [ Click to reveal ].

When: 6 July 2023, from 9:00 am to 4:30 pm (Istanbul time)
Where: The Seed (Sakip Sabanci Museum) Istanbul, Türkiye
Who: Confirmed participants include:
Alia El-Yassir, Regional Director, UN Women Europe and Central Asia
Ali Ulker, Chair of the Board, Yildiz Holding

Deborah Gibbins, Chief Operating Officer, Mary Kay Global
Cenk Ulu, PWC Turkiye, Senior Partner
Vera Futorjanski, Serial Entrepreneur, Investor, LP, Mentor, Innovation Expert at WEF and UN 
Interviews with some of the participants can be arranged on request.

Follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook and join the conversation on social media using the hashtag #PartnerAndAccelerate. You can download visuals, captions, and other promotional materials from our EXPO social media package.
 

[1] All references to Kosovo shall be understood to be in the context of UN Security Council resolution 1244 (1999).