After 11 incredible years building our foundation in London, ICAN Group is thrilled to announce the opening of our new office in Istanbul. To celebrate this significant milestone, we recently hosted an exclusive launch cocktail—an evening of reconnection, vision-sharing, and a deep dive into the future of engineering.
The journey, as shared by our Founder Can Huzmeli, started humbly on a friend’s couch in London and has since evolved into a dedicated 24-person core company with a trusted network of over 500 engineers and consultants. Returning to Istanbul is not just a business expansion; it is a heartfelt homecoming to create success stories with the people we value most.
A Gathering of Industry Leaders
The launch event brought together an extraordinary group of visionaries. Honoring our commitment to privacy, we won’t name-drop, but we were incredibly proud to host a diverse array of top-tier executives. The room was filled with CEOs, Investors, Founders, CTOs, and Product Leaders.
Our attendee list represented a powerful cross-section of the modern business ecosystem. Guests hailed from a wide spectrum of industries, including global telecommunications, top-tier banking and fintech, e-commerce, renewable energy, venture capital, betting and gaming, and enterprise technology software. Sharing our vision with such a distinguished crowd of senior leaders made the evening truly special.
Builders at Heart (No BS)
During the event, we walked our guests through the core philosophy of ICAN Group. We made one thing abundantly clear: we are an engineering group, not a traditional slide-producing consultancy. We are “Builders at Heart,” operating with a strict “No BS” approach to deliver tangible, high-quality results.
Our presentation highlighted our global footprint and strict standards across complex sectors such as FMCG, Blockchain, Mining, Biopharma SaaS, Fintech, and E-commerce. To support these global demands, we outlined our three core service pillars and introduced the exceptional leaders driving them forward:
1. High-Assurance Engineering
Turkey operations led by Gamze Kilic, this pillar is dedicated to systems where being wrong is simply too expensive. We engineer for high security, quality, and performance, specializing in ultra-low latency, bottleneck analysis, and adversarial protocol testing.
A major highlight of the night was a demonstration of our specialized tooling and capabilities in Quantum Readiness and Cryptography. We showcased how we are preparing organizations for the post-quantum era, illustrating our practical applications of zero-knowledge proofs and advanced cryptographic architecture to secure tomorrow’s data today.
2. Managed Engineering Ownership
Turkey operations led by Vedat Demir, this division operates on a simple promise: “Your distractor, our focus.” We take full ownership of the systems and services that fall outside your team’s core focus, allowing your best minds to build the future. From SRE, 24/7 monitoring, and alerting, to full-stack development tied to strict SLOs, we ensure that “ordinary” tasks are executed extraordinarily well—proudly noting our track record of zero downtime since inception on major blockchain infrastructures like Cardano.
3. M&A and Complex Transformation
Turkey operations led by Avedis Boyaci, this service area tackles the monumental shifts in today’s corporate landscape. Whether it is technology due diligence, integration costs, or executing a clean carve-out during a divestment, our team guides businesses through the complexities of Mergers & Acquisitions. Furthermore, we drive complex transformations across people, technology, and processes—with a strong emphasis on Artificial Intelligence transformation and leadership training for emerging and senior executives.
A New Chapter in Istanbul
As we closed the presentation, the message was an open invitation to collaborate. The Istanbul office marks a new chapter for ICAN Group, bringing our global expertise, high standards, and passion for engineering directly to the vibrant Turkish market.
We extend our deepest gratitude to all the senior executives and industry pioneers who joined us to celebrate. We look forward to the follow-up coffee chats, the 90-minute technical discovery sessions, and the innovative systems we will build together in the weeks and years to come.
Welcome to the new era of ICAN Group. Let’s build.