İş Bank’s 14th cohort featured founders from various cities across Türkiye presenting their digital solutions

Türkiye İş Bankası’s Workup Entrepreneurship Program has completed its 14th cohort, graduating 10 technology startups during a virtual Demo Day event, the bank announced.

The completion of the latest cycle brings the total number of startups graduated from the program to 198 since its inception in 2017. (By the way I have a story here about the 13th cohort of Workup)

Organized under the execution of the bank’s Artificial Intelligence Factory (Yapay Zekâ Fabrikası), the 14th cohort featured founders from various cities across Türkiye presenting their digital solutions, growth progress, and expansion strategies to corporate executives, venture capital firms, and ecosystem representatives.

14th cohort placed deliberate emphasis on identifying startups beyond major hubs

Sabri Gökmenler, Deputy General Manager at İş Bankası, said the bank conducted a nationwide screening process across regional development agencies, technology incubation centers (TEKMERs), and technoparks to select the participants.

“We evaluated over 1,300 startups and held one-on-one meetings with 129 of them,” Gökmenler said. “For the 10 selected startups, we established more than 400 connections focusing on investment, commercial partnerships, mentorship, and business development.”

Selection for the 14th cohort placed deliberate emphasis on identifying startups beyond major hubs like Istanbul, Ankara, and Izmir to broaden regional inclusion, the bank stated.

Since 2017, the Workup program has received more than 19,000 applications and engaged with over 3,000 startups. More than 90 alumni have partnered directly with İş Bankası and its subsidiaries, while 95 graduate startups have secured nearly $100 million in total funding from various international and local investors.

The 10 startups graduating from the 14th cohort include:

• Chexta: A cloud-based hotel management software consolidating reservation, operation, and revenue processes.

• Filika.co: A regulatory technology platform providing API infrastructure focused on payroll and labor regulations for SMEs and financial advisors.

• Grower: An AI-backed digital marketing tool consolidating SEO, social media, and ad analytics into a unified dashboard.

• Homesberg: A data platform optimizing pricing strategies and market visibility for short-term rental operators.

• Out Plane: A cloud platform utilizing AI agents to manage software execution and deployment without dedicated DevOps teams.

• Richify.ai: An AI-powered financial education platform designed to assist individuals in managing wealth and tracking goals.

• SHIM: An enterprise AI infrastructure solution enabling secure model deployment while monitoring usage costs and data privacy.

• SolonGate: An enterprise platform providing real-time access control, action permissions, and sensitive data protection for internal AI systems.

• Uplico: An agentic AI platform integrating into existing systems to automate workforce recruitment and management decisions.

• Vitsupp by Marin: An AI-based clinical decision support tool providing personalized supplement routines for pharmacies and clinics.