An action-oriented SME acceleration program for women founders ready to scale

Through the Akbank Women SME Acceleration Program, developed in partnership with Akbank and Sabancı University SUCool, you will gain insights from experts, exchange experiences with fellow women founders, and turn your growth priorities into concrete, actionable steps for your business.

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Let's clarify your company's next growth step together

Akbank Women SME Acceleration Program
The Akbank Women SME Acceleration Program is an 8-week hybrid development program bringing together sales, branding, digitalization, investment readiness, and scaling for women founders aiming to grow their businesses.

Throughout the program, you will gain a clearer view of your company’s current positioning, identify your growth priorities, and work on actionable steps to advance your business. Through training sessions, group mentorships, peer-to-peer experience sharing among women founders, and a customized company development report, the program aims to make your growth process more planned and measurable.
Application Period: July 22 - August 31, 2026
Program Period: September 23 - November 25, 2026
Format: Hybrid
Location: The opening meeting will be held face-to-face at SUCool, and the closing ceremony & Demo Day will take place at Sabancı Center. Training and mentorship sessions will be conducted online.
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Why this program?

Activate your growth potential with the right priorities

Every company looking to scale faces similar questions: Which customer segment should I focus on? How can I strengthen my sales channels? How can I position my brand more clearly? How can I integrate digital tools into my business? How can I be better prepared for financing and support mechanisms?

The Akbank Women SME Acceleration Program approaches these questions individually, based on the actual needs of your company. The program is designed to support women founders in making their businesses not just more visible, but more resilient, well-planned, and ready for growth.

What will you achieve at the end of the program?

Clearer, actionable, and prioritized outcomes for your company at the end of 8 weeks

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You will see more clearly how your brand is perceived by your target audience and develop a strengthened approach to positioning and digital visibility.
You will work on a more sustainable sales strategy by evaluating your sales processes, current customer relationships, and new channel opportunities.
You will discover how to utilize digitalization and artificial intelligence tools in your business development, operations, marketing, and customer relationship management processes.
You will build a core framework to move forward more preparedly toward mechanisms such as financing, loans, grants, investments, and export supports.
By coming together with fellow women founders sharing similar growth targets, you will learn not only from experts but also from each other's experiences.
Thanks to group mentorships, you will discuss your company's growth areas with your mentors and gain insights from the perspectives of other women founders.
You will receive a customized Company Development Report that makes your company's strengths, needs, and growth priorities visible.
At the end of the program, you will have the opportunity to share your growth roadmap by coming together with the business world, ecosystem representatives, and relevant stakeholders.

How Does the Program Progress?

Kickoff and Needs Analysis
Training Modules
Group Mentorships
Company Development Report
Closing and Demo Day

Kickoff and Needs Analysis

The program begins with an evaluation process aimed at understanding the current status of the participating companies. In this phase, your company's growth targets, strengths, development needs, and primary focus areas are identified.

Training Modules

Online training sessions are conducted on topics including sales, branding, digital marketing, artificial intelligence, financing, grant literacy, customer experience, and growth strategy. All training modules are structured to address the real-world needs you face in your daily operations.

Group Mentorships

Group mentorships represent one of the most powerful learning environments of the program. In these sessions, while participants discuss their companies' needs, areas for improvement, and growth targets with their mentors, they also share experiences with other women founders regarding similar challenges, alternative solutions, and best practices. Consequently, each participant does not only focus on their own business but also learns from the unique perspectives of women founders across different industries.

Company Development Report

The Company Development Report, prepared at both the beginning and the end of the program, provides clear visibility into your company's current status, strengths, development areas, and progress throughout the program process. This report can be used as a practical reference document for the steps to be taken following the program.

Closing and Demo Day

The program concludes with a closing and Demo Day gathering held at Sabancı Center. During this event, participating companies will have the opportunity to share their growth roadmaps, the development areas they focused on throughout the program, and their next targets with ecosystem stakeholders.

Who Can Apply?

The Akbank Women SME Acceleration Program is designed for women founders who aim to grow their companies, want to clarify their development areas, and can actively participate in the program. This program is aimed at SMEs that want to grow their business in a more planned manner, take stronger steps in sales and branding, increase their digitalization capacity, and proceed more preparedly through financing and export processes.

Eligibility Criteria

Companies with a female partner holding at least a 50% ownership stake,
Having a minimum revenue/turnover of 3 million TL,
Seeking to increase sales, develop new channels, or expand their customer base,
Aiming to position their brand more clearly and strengthen their digital visibility,
Targeting the integration of digitalization and artificial intelligence tools into their business processes,
Able to dedicate an average of 6 hours per week to training, mentorship, and work processes throughout the program,
Having at least 2 people in their team.

Core Topics Covered in the Program

01
Brand, Customer, and Visibility
  • Brand positioning
  • Digital marketing
  • Customer experience
  • Creating strong and sustainable customer touchpoints
02
Sales and Growth
  • Sales strategy
  • Growing existing customers
  • Developing new sales channels
  • Determining growth priorities
  • Measurable and sustainable growth approach
03
Digitalization and Artificial Intelligence
  • Business development with AI
  • Efficiency in operational processes
  • Integration of digital tools into business processes
  • Rapid prototyping
  • Transitioning from idea to actionable solution
04
Financing, Investment, and Support Mechanisms
  • Readiness for financing
  • Credit and capital processes
  • Investor perspective
  • Grant literacy
  • Export and growth supports

Strengthen your company's growth plan starting today

Apply to the Akbank Women SME Acceleration Program to clarify your sales channels, position your brand more strongly, increase your digitalization capacity, and proceed more preparedly through financing processes. In this 8-week hybrid program, let's evaluate your company's current status together, make your growth priorities visible, and build a more concrete roadmap for your next steps.

APPLICATION FORM

Discover Akbank’s exclusive world for women SMEs!

The Women SME Package brings together comprehensive solutions tailored to the needs of women-led businesses, such as access to finance, payment infrastructure, POS solutions, grant and incentive consultancy, training, and mentorship.

While accelerating your company’s growth journey, you can also take a closer look at these exclusive opportunities offered by Akbank for women and women SMEs.

EXPLORE THE WOMEN SME PACKAGE

How Does the Program Progress?

July 22 - August 31

Application Period

September 9, 2026

Announcement of Results

September 23, 2026

Kickoff Meeting