Impact Entrepreneurship Program from Vehbi Koç Foundation and İşbank

The program, supported by Koç University Entrepreneurship Research Center (KWORKS) and İşbank as main sponsors and endorsed by Turkey Social Entrepreneurship Network (TSEN), will be run by the Workup Entrepreneurship Program. The objective of the program is to support the scaling of technology-based startups that focus on or show potential for creating environmental and social impact in areas such as quality education, health and wellbeing, climate, accessible and clean energy, and sustainable cities and communities. Through this support, the program will contribute to generating sustainable solutions to environmental and social issues.

How to apply
The Impact Entrepreneurship Program aims to provide innovative, creative, equitable, and ethical startups and scaleups, which operate with robust business models and effectively use/develop technology, with the assistance they need to drive their social impact and financial returns. Another objective of the program is to introduce responsible investors to such startups and scaleups.

Startups with creative and assertive ideas seeking support may submit their applications to the program via the website (etkigirisimciligi.com) until March 15, 2022.

All the startups and scaleups applying to the program will be reviewed according to various criteria, including teams, innovations, product applications, market strategy, size, and competitiveness, scaleup capacity, and program fit. The eligible applicants will be announced at the end of March.

Process
The 16-week acceleration program, which will run from April through July 2022, will cover a concentrated mentoring process in three stages. The program will kick off with Info Day to provide information and start building an ecosystem. In the first stage, the startups will review their products or services in terms of market fit, impact focus, and business model. After verifying their business models, the participants will move to the second stage to develop the leanest solutions to adapt their products or services to customer needs and market conditions. The third and final stage will focus on offering the solutions to the market to drive sales and finding investment. In this stage, Vehbi Koç Foundation and İşbank will provide the support needed to facilitate the participants’ meetings with investors.

Once all these stages are completed, the participants will graduate from the program on Impact Day, a one day event where they meet investors and ecosystem players. The eligible applicants will benefit from the coworking spaces in KWORKS in Şişli and Kolektif House Levent throughout the program.