Held in National Harbor, Maryland, the 2026 Summit brought together more than 5,500 participants from over 100 international markets, alongside economic development organizations from across the United States.
Last year, our Founder & CEO Emre Yücel joined the Summit as a speaker on the panel “Investment Fundamentals: Do’s and Don’ts from Successful Investors,” sharing perspectives on investment and building companies across markets.
This year, RealTeam returned with clear priorities around our U.S. expansion and spent the Summit advancing conversations directly connected to those plans.
Building a Stronger U.S. Footprint
Our focus at SelectUSA was execution. The team met with organizations and decision-makers who can play a role in the next phase of RealWorks Global’s U.S. presence. We discussed potential partnerships, local opportunities, and the practical steps required to expand our operations in the market.
We also used the Summit to strengthen the relationships around the technology companies we are building, particularly as HaloScape continues to grow its presence in the U.S. One conversation stood out.
Meeting with Howard Wright, NVIDIA VP
During SelectUSA, we facilitated a meeting with Howard Wright, Vice President of Startup Ecosystem at NVIDIA, U.S. Consul General in Istanbul Michael Lally, U.S. Commercial Attaché in Istanbul Daniel Pint, and our leadership team, including Founder & CEO Emre Yücel, CMO Fulya Savova, and Medical AI & Data Lead Dora Bayraktar, M.D.
Howard Wright leads NVIDIA’s global startup ecosystem and NVIDIA Inception, a program supporting more than 22,000 startups with access to technology, technical expertise, and the wider NVIDIA network. That made the conversation particularly relevant for us. We discussed how AI and deep tech founders in markets where RealWorks operates can build closer connections with NVIDIA’s global startup ecosystem.
Türkiye was an important part of that discussion. There is a growing group of founders building technically ambitious companies in the region, but access to global technology networks can still make a significant difference in how quickly those companies develop and scale.
RealWorks sits directly inside that founder ecosystem. We build technology companies ourselves, and we see firsthand where access to global infrastructure, expertise, and relationships can accelerate the work. Our health intelligence platform has benefited from NVIDIA’s startup ecosystem through NVIDIA Inception and NVIDIA for Startups as its AI capabilities and research program have grown.
At SelectUSA, the discussion became broader: how can more founders from the markets we know well gain access to these same global networks? We were glad to help bring that conversation to the table and invited Howard and the NVIDIA team to continue it with us in Istanbul.
Turning the Summit into Next Steps
SelectUSA gave us a concentrated setting to move several parts of our U.S. roadmap forward. The Summit itself is built around connecting international companies directly with U.S. economic development organizations, government representatives, and the broader investment ecosystem.
For RealWorks Global, those connections now continue beyond Maryland. We left SelectUSA with a stronger U.S. network and several conversations that have moved into clear next steps.
Our sincere thanks to SelectUSA, the International Trade Administration, and everyone who helped bring these conversations together.
