Turkiye is trying to incentivize innovation and technology development with government support at many different levels.
Turkiye is home to 98 technoparks, hosting over 8 thousand technology SMEs. Currently, there are 92 thousand R&D personnel working in technoparks. The total R&D accreditated workforce is a whopping 222 thousand throughout the country.
This is a result of many different support programs at different levels.
The government's Tech research tax benefits, and many other Techcenter initiatives, Kosgeb supports, and the Ministry of Commerce supports. Tubitak, a major contributor to Turkish technology development, with countless programs including BİGG, Tey-Dep, Tubitak investment programs, and other R&D, entrepreneurship, and technology export support programs. Regulations supporting private companies with tax benefits who invest in Turkish startups via gsfy funds, Turquality supports, startup incubators, and patent incentives...
The total R&D expenditure of Turkiye is around $3.2 billion out of a total $262 billion GDP.
There are so many grants and supports for technology and innovation in Turkey that even we were confused while researching. That's why there are so many consultancy services that provide incentives and grant guidance for confused startups and companies.
Overall these support mechanisms help startups and technology R&D companies to survive in the early stages of tech development, which is called the startup Death Valley.
We are not experts on government grants and incentives.
Our expertise is B2B startup development.
That is why, we will summarize a few key points that startups should consider regarding grants and incentives.
1- Restriction of innovation and creativity
Grant terms and criteria may be restrictive due to their nature in many aspects. It may limit the types of projects that startups want to develop or the roadmap they will follow to develop the solution. In these cases, the startup may remain dependent on the criteria requested by the grant directive rather than seeking innovation. In such situations, we recommend that you remember that time is the greatest value. You might be tempted to file that one last project that has nothing to do with your startup's focus area. It's perfectly understandable to create a cash flow. But be sure you never forget you are giving your time in return and time is the most valuable thing, especially for a startup.
2- Reasons that delay market entry
Startups are in the race to create value. They aim to develop and quickly test new business models or new technologies to address an important need. The reason we say quickly is because we are not alone in the world. Be humble enough to grasp the notion that most of our original ideas are thought of and tested by someone else in the world. Success depends on being able to learn quickly and deliver the service/product that addresses the need. To achieve this goal, startups sprint. that's why adapting to the timing of government grants and the natural bureaucratic cycle of grant processes can be risky. We recommend that you choose supports that can get quick results and that will not create time dependency in the future.
3-Strict reporting requirements and compliance demands
Grants often come with extensive reporting requirements on how the money is used. This can be a significant workload for startups. In response to this workload, the startup may divert its resources, such as time and money, preventing it from focusing on its core business activities.
In summary, picking the right support directly affects the success of the startup.
Support and grants can be very valuable, especially in the initial phases, when the innovator is barely getting to know the customer or testing the new technology.
We wanted to remind the fact that startups, by their nature, have to learn quickly and apply what they learn. These dynamics determine the startup's ability to scale through productization, commercialization, and investment stages.
It is healthier to determine which stage you are in and what support you should or should not receive based on this main dynamic.
We have coordinated many PoC (conceptual validation) projects between companies and startups for years. The funnel of B2B startups we managed raised investments of over $22 million.
With a gradually development corporate network of 100 plus companies as test beds for PoCs and a playbook derived out of this expertise, we help B2B startups to commercialize, productize, and receive investments.
If you have a B2B startup that looking for market fit and investment, we want to get to know you. Workinlot PoC Labs