About
Akbank+ is a full-time intrapreneurship and spin-off program.
Innovation presentation
Akbank+ is the first full-time intrapreneurship and spin-off program in Turkey. Program is unique for innovation ecosystem in Turkey for enabling employees to develop their own business ideas full-time while keeping all of their employee benefits. During the design process for the program, all of thethe entire intrapreneurship and investment ecosystem was analysed and pain points for intrapreneurs and employees were identified. Aligned with these insights, the end-to-end program design was completed. In addition to working on business ideas full-time, program allows employees to receive innovation trainings, real-time practice, networking, marketing and MVP development opportunities without any cost as well as mentorship from globally acclaimed experts. At the end of the program, aligned with the investment decision, intrapreneurs are given the opportunity to spin off and start their own ventures. Akbank team also provides legal and operational consultancy during incorporation and investment processes.
Uniqueness of the project
Akbank+ was designed by addressing all the intrapreneur and employee pain points in Turkish ecosystem, thus it provides a seamless end-to-end venture building opportunity.
• In most of the venture building programs, employees are not allowed to work full-time to develop their business ideas because senior managements are not confident taking any risks. Onboarding several employees in the program would result in financial loss, operational workload and adjustments to business continuity. Akbank has been transformational in the ecosystem to design an end-to-end program to ease this process for the company while also addressing employee needs.
• In the ecosystem, generous investment is prioritized for advanced startups as this would minimize the risk and costs for the company. Intrapreneur investments are up to 150K USD with up to 70% equity. As this does not match with entrepreneurs’ needs, the investment conditions were adjusted. 500K USD investment was made to each startup with 20% equity.
• During the program, design and software development agencies were contracted based on startup needs. Compared to other intrapreneurship programs in Turkey, which include mostly trainings and mentorship meetings, intrapreneurs were offered to develop their MVPs with contractors without any spending or legal arrangements. In addition, after the investment decision made, intrapreneurs are offered legal guidance and consultancy to proceed with their incorporation and investment processes.
• After the program is ended, or in case that intrapreneurs would not like to proceed their career as entrepreneurs, employees are entitled as “Innovation Ambassadors” and offered an opportunity to work very closely with Innovation Centre in future projects.
• One of the differentiating component of the program is that it was conducted in collaboration with the Human Resources department. HR has enabled employees to keep all their employee benefits throughout the program, provided them with relevant technical equipment and re-arranged organizational chart to manage organizational roles & responsibilities. Throughout the program, no participants had to manage any workflow process related to their previous job positions, which facilitated them to focus more on their business ventures.
