Akbank LAB, Akbank's Innovation Center, has been expanding and developing its in-house entrepreneurship and innovation programs since 2016.
Supporting company culture with collaborations with fintechs, projects carried out and open innovation programs, Akbank aims to support its employees who want to establish their own startups to remove business partners from the institution and to further develop the entrepreneurship ecosystem in Turkey with this new program.
All Akbankers who have recently joined the company or have been working at Akbank for years can apply to the Akbank+ Program, which is a first in Turkey and allows Akbank employees to work on their entrepreneurial ideas full-time.
Burcu Civelek Yüce, EVP of Retail Banking and Digital Solutions, stated that "Those selected among Akbankers who applied to the Akbank+ Program with scalable business ideas will focus on their business ideas full-time. Akbankers will develop their ideas during the incubation phase after participating in various trainings, workshops and intensive mentoring sessions. Then they will progress to the design and product development stages. In line with the decision of the Akbank+ Investment Committee, we will invest in ideas as Akbank and enable our colleagues to establish their companies. Teams that cannot receive investment will return to their jobs at Akbank as Innovation Ambassadors to use their acquired entrepreneurship and innovation competencies in new projects and will guide other Akbank employees on this journey. We run Akbank+ with the support of experienced institutions and mentors. We believe that this program, which will be a first in its field, will make significant contributions to the entrepreneurship ecosystem of both our Bank and our country.”
EVP of Human and Culture Pınar Anapa said: “With Akbank+, we are taking our programs one step further with the aim of developing and supporting ideas that will carry Akbank into the future, as well as spreading the innovation and entrepreneurship culture within the bank. We believe that the Akbank+ Program will also make significant contributions to the development of entrepreneurship and innovation competencies within the organization and to the dissemination of this spirit. Our friends participating in this program will also be cultural ambassadors. With Akbank+, we are adding a new one to our human-centered strategies and practices, and we say that we are with you in your career journey regardless of time and place."
