Back women-led tech ventures from idea to scale-up

Submitted through the COP31 Sustainable Transformation Awards, via SKD Türkiye (WBCSD Global Network Partner).

The company is a financial services group working in investment banking and advisory, employing between 251 and 1,000 people.

Women founders face a set of disadvantages that compound: restricted access to finance, limited entry into investor networks, fewer mentoring relationships, gaps in technical knowledge, and lower visibility in the ecosystems where deals are made. Each of these is individually addressable, but a venture that lacks all five rarely reaches the point where capital becomes available to it.

Most support responses stop at the accelerator boundary. A cohort is trained, a demonstration day is held, and the relationship ends at graduation, which is roughly the point at which a technology venture's hardest financing and scaling decisions begin.

The company established the academy in 2016 to address the structural barriers women face in entrepreneurship, education and economic empowerment, drawing on a 30-year institutional approach to adding value to entrepreneurship. In 2023, the programme was restructured with a stronger focus on technology ventures, building on participant feedback and the evolving needs of women entrepreneurs.

The defining design decision is that support does not end at graduation. The relationship continues as a long-term strategic partnership, through which the company's financial expertise, mentoring and network remain available across the venture's growth phases, up to and including globalisation and initial public offering or merger and acquisition processes.

Location of the initiative: Türkiye, with applications received from 9 countries and 33 cities in the 2025-2026 cycle.

The academy is a capacity-building system for women-founded technology ventures, built around a structured programme and an open-ended relationship that follows it.

Selection sets the character of the cohort. Applications are taken from women-led technology ventures across transformation areas including artificial intelligence, sustainability, health technologies, biotechnology, mobility, financial technologies and social impact. Admission is designed to strengthen both the founder and the venture team, so that capability is built within the organisation rather than concentrated in one person.

The taught component combines bootcamps with vertical expertise training that is both theoretical and practical, delivered across four strands: finance, law, artificial intelligence and pitch deck preparation. This addresses the technical knowledge gap directly rather than through general entrepreneurship content.

Mentoring is one-to-one and is delivered by the company's own leaders, including senior executives who take on mentoring relationships and strategic business development guidance personally. Employees across the group's subsidiaries contribute to the mentoring process, which makes the academy an organisation-wide commitment rather than a departmental initiative.

Access to capital and to markets is built into the structure through investor meetings, inspiration talks, networking events and a demonstration day, supported by help in entering national and European grant and funding schemes and in preparing for crowdfunding.

The distinguishing element is what happens afterwards. Graduation does not end the relationship: a lifetime strategic partnership model keeps the company's financial expertise, mentoring and network available to the venture from the idea stage through globalisation and into initial public offering or merger and acquisition processes. An investment support model has more recently been added, so that capital as well as advice can follow the ventures the academy has developed.

The structure, training, mentoring, investor access, community management and impact measurement, is modular and can be flexed to the needs of local ecosystems, which is what allows applications to be taken and cohorts to be run across different countries and sectors.

Figure 1: The academy in seven steps

The academy in seven steps, from the open call for women-led technology ventures through selection, bootcamp, vertical training, one-to-one mentoring and demo day to the strategic partnership that continues after graduation.

Figure 2: 2025-2026 survey outcomes

End-of-programme survey results for the 2025-2026 cycle, answered by 13 of the 16 ventures that graduated: satisfaction, new venture contacts, institutional collaborations, visibility, investment potential, self-confidence and empowerment.

Sustainability impact

Climate

The academy does not abate emissions in the company's own operations. Nothing is reported for it under Scope 1 or Scope 2, and no value chain emissions category is claimed for it either: its climate contribution is an enabling one, delivered through the ventures it selects, develops and finances.

Selection is the first mechanism. The supported portfolio includes ventures working across sustainability, climate-related solutions, sustainable materials and food, health technologies, biotechnology, financial technologies, artificial intelligence, mobility and social impact. In the 2025-2026 cycle, more than 100 ventures applied from 33 cities and 9 countries; 19 ventures were admitted. Over the ten years since 2016, more than 165 ventures have been supported, approximately 75 per cent of graduate ventures remain active, and graduate ventures have collectively generated more than USD 100 million in investment impact.

Capital allocation is the second. The investment support model added recently, the entry routes into national and European grant schemes, the crowdfunding preparation and the investor introductions all direct finance towards ventures whose products address environmental problems, which is a lever that training alone does not provide.

A portfolio-wide measure of greenhouse gas benefit or avoided emissions is not available for the ventures the academy supports, so climate effect is not reported as a consolidated academy indicator.

Individual examples are beginning to appear at venture level. One supported venture, Factory Of Us, which makes furniture from waste and recycled materials, estimates that substituting recycled for virgin material avoided approximately 3.6 to 5.5 tonnes of CO2e over its first 30 months of operation, on its own production records and commonly used emission factors. The estimate has not been independently verified or tested through a life cycle assessment and is indicative only. The same venture reports more than 200 trees preserved from cutting and approximately 100 trees planted, which it has not converted into a CO2e figure.

Social

Over ten years, the academy has graduated nearly 300 women entrepreneurs and contributed directly to the development of more than 165 ventures. Approximately 75 per cent of graduate ventures remain active, while more than one third have secured investment. Graduate ventures have collectively generated more than USD 100 million in investment impact, with alumni including technology ventures that have raised multi-million-dollar investments, expanded into global markets and gone through acquisition processes.

In the 2025-2026 cycle, the academy received applications from more than 100 ventures across 33 cities and 9 countries. Nineteen ventures operating in transformation areas including artificial intelligence, sustainability, health technologies, biotechnology, mobility, financial technologies and social impact were admitted to the programme, and 16 successfully completed the programme and graduated.

Funding and market entry outcomes are tracked directly. Most ventures in the latest cohort entered national research and small business funding schemes and European Union food innovation funding; more than TRY 1 million was raised through crowdfunding; 5 investor non-disclosure agreements were signed; and investments were received from early-stage investment institutions. Proof-of-concept and strategic collaboration processes were opened with large corporates in pharmaceuticals and consumer health, apparel and retail, and with a metropolitan municipality and its technology platform.

The independent impact assessment of the 2025-2026 cycle found clear gains in entrepreneurial capacity. Among the 13 founders who completed the end-of-programme survey, 11 reported gaining knowledge that supports venture growth, 8 reported that the programme increased their venture's investment potential, and 4 said their investor meetings had become more effective.

The programme also strengthened networks, visibility and personal empowerment. Of the 13 survey respondents, 12 reported meeting new ventures, 6 reported developing new institutional collaborations, 8 said their venture had become more visible, 10 reported increased self-confidence, and 10 reported feeling more empowered. All 13 respondents reported being satisfied with the programme, including 8 who were very satisfied.

Impact measurement for the 2025-2026 cycle was conducted by an independent impact assessment expert using a mixed-method approach. Data were collected throughout the programme through surveys, focus groups, individual interviews, participant observation and regular monitoring, enabling both quantitative and qualitative assessment of participant outcomes and continuous feedback into programme design.

Business impact

Benefits

The strongest business benefit is relationship depth in a segment the company's core advisory business serves. The lifetime strategic partnership keeps the company alongside ventures from the idea stage through globalisation and into initial public offering or merger and acquisition processes, which are precisely the transactions an investment banking and advisory business exists to support.

The academy gives visibility of a technology venture pipeline built over ten years: more than 165 ventures supported, approximately 75 per cent of graduate ventures still active, and more than one third having secured investment, based on relationships formed long before those ventures come to market.

Senior leaders and employees who serve as mentors develop coaching, assessment and cross-sector judgement, and gain direct exposure to early-stage technology across artificial intelligence, the internet of things, sustainability and biotechnology, which is capability development that would otherwise have to be bought.

The corporate collaborations opened around the ventures, proof-of-concept processes with large corporates and public bodies, extend the company's institutional network into sectors and organisations beyond its usual transaction perimeter.

Costs

More than TRY 42.5 million has been committed to the academy over ten years, and the investment support model added recently commits capital as well as advisory resource.

The largest non-cash cost is senior time. One-to-one mentoring by company leaders and personal involvement by senior executives in mentoring and strategic business development cannot be delegated without changing the nature of the offer, which caps how many ventures can be served in a cycle.

Impact measurement is a standing resource commitment. For the 2025-2026 cycle, an independent impact assessment expert used surveys, focus groups, individual interviews, participant observation and regular monitoring throughout the programme rather than relying only on internal reporting.

The post-graduation commitment is open-ended by design. A lifetime partnership accumulates obligations with every cohort, so the resource required grows with the alumni base and not only with the current intake.

Two risks bear on cost as the model spreads: standardising mentoring quality, and differences in access to finance between local markets. Both are managed through the company's own expertise, network and delivery experience, and costs are contained by running the academy with a foundation partner rather than building a parallel delivery organisation, and by keeping the module structure flexible so each ecosystem receives only what it lacks.

Impact beyond sustainability and business

Co-benefits

The ventures supported work in areas with their own sustainability value: sustainable production, circular economy, climate technologies, health, financial technology and artificial intelligence, so capability built in the academy is applied to environmental and social problems by the ventures themselves.

The academy also shifts behaviour further up the value chain. Investor perception of women-led technology ventures strengthens as the graduate portfolio performs, and corporates that run proof-of-concept processes with these ventures change their procurement policies as a result, which opens a market channel that training alone cannot create.

The collaboration structure itself has spread: an entrepreneurship ecosystem relationship that began with one non-governmental partner has developed into a long-term strategic partnership with a national entrepreneurship foundation, a wide external mentor network and multi-stakeholder institutional partnerships.

Potential side-effects

The two risks the company identifies in scaling are standardisation of mentoring quality and differences in access to finance across local markets. Both bite hardest when the model is exported: a cohort in an ecosystem with thin investor coverage receives the same training but not the same outcome, and expectations have to be set accordingly.

Self-reported survey results measure perceived changes in capability and experience rather than venture performance on their own. They should therefore be read alongside harder outcome data such as the active venture rate, investment secured, market expansion and collaborations developed.

A support model that continues after graduation also creates dependency if it is not managed. The value of the lifetime partnership is the network and the advisory relationship; if it becomes the venture's primary route to capital and customers, it substitutes for the ecosystem access the academy set out to build.

Finally, the model depends on continued corporate funding and senior involvement. More than TRY 42.5 million over ten years reflects sustained commitment, but the mentoring intensity that distinguishes the academy is the element most exposed to competing demands on executive time.

Typical business profile

The model suits financial services companies: investment banks, advisory firms, asset managers and corporate venture units, whose core expertise is finance, transactions and network access, because those are exactly the assets early-stage women-led ventures lack.

It is also applicable to corporates in any sector that want structured access to early-stage technology, provided they can commit senior people to one-to-one mentoring over several years rather than to a single training event, and provided they can hold a multi-year budget for delivery and measurement.

Delivery engages senior executives and business line leaders as mentors, employees across group subsidiaries in the mentoring process, and a corporate social impact or sustainability function to run selection, community management and impact measurement with the partner organisations.

Approach

• Define the barrier set before designing the curriculum: identify the specific disadvantages the target group faces, here access to finance, investor networks, mentoring, technical knowledge and visibility, so the content addresses named gaps rather than general entrepreneurship theory.

• Narrow the focus to where capital and capability are concentrated: restructure the intake around a defined field, in this case technology ventures from 2023 onwards, which makes mentoring matches, investor introductions and curriculum design far more precise than a sector-agnostic intake allows.

• Select on impact potential as well as commercial readiness: in the 2025-2026 cycle, more than 100 applications were received from 33 cities and 9 countries. Nineteen ventures were admitted across artificial intelligence, sustainability, health technologies, biotechnology, mobility, financial technologies and social impact.

• Admit teams rather than founders alone: encourage venture teams to participate alongside founders so that knowledge and capability are distributed across the organisation and can be applied directly to the work of the venture.

• Run bootcamps with defined vertical training strands: deliver theoretical and practical expertise training across four strands, finance, law, artificial intelligence and pitch deck preparation, so that the technical knowledge gap is closed with specifics rather than with general business content.

• Put senior leaders into one-to-one mentoring: assign company executives and business leaders as personal mentors and involve them in strategic business development guidance, because the value being transferred is judgement and network access, which cannot be delivered in a classroom.

• Build the funding route into the programme rather than after it: run investor meetings, networking events and a demonstration day, and support entry into national and European grant schemes, crowdfunding preparation and investor negotiation, so that ventures leave with live financing processes rather than a pitch deck.

• Continue the relationship after graduation and measure it systematically: maintain a long-term strategic partnership through the venture's growth phases up to globalisation and initial public offering or merger and acquisition, while assessing impact through an independent mixed-method approach that combines surveys, focus groups, individual interviews, participant observation and regular monitoring.

Stakeholders involved

• Project leads: the academy is led by a member of the company's board of directors and has run without interruption for ten years in collaboration with a national entrepreneurship foundation. It is positioned at the intersection of the company's three social impact areas: women, entrepreneurship and education, and is managed as part of the company's long-term value creation strategy rather than as a corporate responsibility project. Company leaders act as mentors, employees contribute actively to mentoring, and content is developed continuously in line with annual impact assessments. Senior executives in particular take on one-to-one mentoring relationships and strategic business development guidance personally.

• Company functions: the commitment spans all of the group's subsidiaries and teams. Business line leaders provide vertical expertise in finance and transaction structuring, employees support mentoring and networking, and the social impact function runs applications, selection, training delivery, community management and the annual measurement cycle with the partner organisations.

• Main providers: impact measurement for the 2025-2026 cycle was conducted by an independent impact assessment expert using surveys, focus groups, individual interviews, participant observation and regular monitoring. Training providers deliver parts of the vertical expertise curriculum under the academy's specification.

• Other: a national entrepreneurship foundation is the long-term delivery partner and co-owner of the measurement approach. Entrepreneurs themselves, investors, mentors and private sector representatives take an active part in the design and development of the programme; the shift of focus towards technology was made as a direct result of participant feedback. An external mentor network supplies expertise beyond the company's own leadership. Investors and business representatives contribute through networking events and the demonstration day. Public funding bodies for research and for small and medium enterprises, and a European Union food innovation funding scheme, provided grant routes for cohort ventures, and proof-of-concept and strategic collaboration processes were opened with large corporates and with a metropolitan municipality and its technology platform. Stakeholder needs are reviewed regularly across application, selection, training and mentoring, and the impact analyses run at the end of each programme measure participant experience and drive the annual update of content and delivery model.

Key parameters to consider

The academy has run since 2016 and has progressively strengthened its focus on technology ventures. Ten years of continuity is what makes the alumni evidence, nearly 300 women entrepreneurs graduated, more than 165 ventures supported, approximately 75 per cent of graduate ventures still active, more than one third having secured investment, and more than USD 100 million in investment impact, meaningful, because venture outcomes take years to appear.

Cohort size is set by mentoring capacity rather than by demand. In the 2025-2026 cycle, more than 100 applications from 33 cities and 9 countries resulted in 19 admitted ventures, of which 16 successfully completed the programme.

The modular structure, training, mentoring, investor access, community management and impact measurement, allows adaptation to different venture needs and ecosystems. Applications from 9 countries and 33 cities in the 2025-2026 cycle demonstrate the geographic and sectoral range the model can reach.

More than TRY 42.5 million over ten years is the resource parameter, alongside the recently introduced investment support model, which changes the company's role from adviser to capital provider for selected ventures.

The two scaling constraints are explicit: standardising mentoring quality, and variation in access to finance between local markets. Neither is solved by curriculum design; both depend on the depth of the local network the delivery partner can supply.

Implementation and operations tips

Do not end the relationship at graduation. The evidence here is that the post-programme strategic partnership is what distinguishes the academy from an accelerator, because a venture's financing and scaling decisions arrive after the training does.

Admit the team, not only the founder. Team participation helps ensure that capability is embedded in the venture rather than held by one person, supporting the practical application of learning across the organisation.

Use your own scarcest asset as the offer. For a financial services company that asset is transaction and financing judgement, delivered one-to-one by people who do the work; generic entrepreneurship training is available elsewhere and adds nothing distinctive.

Measure independently and use mixed methods. Combining surveys, focus groups, individual interviews, participant observation and regular monitoring provides both quantitative and qualitative evidence, while allowing findings to inform programme improvements during delivery.

Build financing routes into the programme rather than treating a demonstration day as the endpoint. Grant scheme entry, crowdfunding preparation and investor negotiation support turn a pitch into a live process.

Let participants redirect the design. The shift of the academy towards technology came from participant feedback, not from internal strategy, and it is the change that most improved the quality of the applicant pool.

External links

Sustainability reports

Sources

(1) Sustainability reports