Breaking the Chains in Turkey: The Future Belongs to All Entrepreneurial Women!

To all the women who tirelessly pursue their labor, stand against male dominance and all forms of violence and injustice, and take part in every initiative to make the world a more livable place.

Before We Begin

March 8th is the day on which women worldwide express their aspirations for equality, development, and a more peaceful life.

This important day, whose history we hear about frequently these days, has of course distinguished itself from other days as a result of an "uproar" that broke out—just like in every freedom story—and has come to represent a struggle. In 1857, those working women standing against injustice in a textile factory in New York, demanding equal rights and humane working conditions, became a source of inspiration for all other women in the world, showing us that this uproar, which was by no means misplaced, was actually the first domino piece. We are not sure if these women, whose stories many of us know and can emotionally connect with, knew that we would be speaking of them 165 years later, but we have full confidence that they felt the step they took was different.

It is also possible to say that this feeling is currently experienced by another segment today. This belief of "acting even though one cannot see exactly what will happen in the future" is an important spark that drives today's entrepreneurs. What makes an initiative an initiative, besides having a unique idea, is actually taking that first bold step without being sure of what follows.

Starting from this very point, the working women in the textile factory we commemorate today are also entrepreneur women who have inspired many female entrepreneurs. Over the years, with the egalitarian rights and freedoms implemented by modern societies—actually, quite late indeed—working women have now been joined by female entrepreneurs. The concept of entrepreneurship, which has already become a rising concept over the last 2 centuries, takes on a much more emotional theme within the female community when looking at its historical journey. This stance shown by women in society and business life, without needing any other label despite so many obstacles, is an entrepreneurship story in itself.

Successful Female Entrepreneurs and Startups in Turkey

In this ecosystem, we wanted to include some of the hundreds of female entrepreneurs who quickly seized opportunities in Turkey and inspired many women with their ventures:

Demet Mutlu - Trendyol

Demet Mutlu is the female entrepreneur behind the foundation story of Trendyol, whose story most of us are familiar with, which was launched in her living room in 2010 and became one of the leading companies in the e-commerce sector in Turkey in 12 years! Gratuating from New York University Department of Economics, Mutlu dropped out of her education at Harvard University to establish Trendyol and quickly achieved significant success with her right steps.

Hande Çilingir - Insider

Another name we wanted to include in our list is Hande Çilingir, Co-founder and CEO of Insider, which recently became one of the Turkish unicorn startups by receiving a significant investment. After completing her education at the London School of Economics, Çilingir established Insider, which provides AI-backed multi-channel growth management services. On this occasion, let us congratulate the Insider team and Çilingir for this development, which is a great step for the Turkish entrepreneurship ecosystem. May your success be permanent!

Filiz Akkaş & Pelin Özkal - Mapsis Metal

Filiz Akkaş and Pelin Özkal, who were chosen as "Women Entrepreneurs of the Year 2021" in Turkey's Woman Entrepreneur Competition, established Mapsis Metal with the trainings they received from KOSGEB. Wishing to see our star-engineer entrepreneurs at even better points after taking this step by observing the lack of production in another sector where male dominance is prominent!

Nilsu Derici - Wiser Media

Lastly, another female entrepreneur we want to include is Nilsu Derici, Co-founder of the Social Curation Platform Wiser! Entering our lives as a mobile application with the aim of producing quality and intellectual content in digital media, Wiser seems poised to carry its name even higher in a short time.

Supports For Female Entrepreneurs

The stories of our entrepreneurs, only a few of whom we could list above, are highly important in solidifying the position of women in society on an egalitarian and liberal ground. In this context, institutions and organizations carrying out social-scale works try to alleviate the inequality of opportunity through the programs they offer to prospective female entrepreneurs.

For women who want to realize their ideas, establish their own brand, and sell their products, receiving financial, technical, and educational support at the starting point allows them to progress through their entrepreneurial journeys more successfully.

KOSGEB

At the top of the institutions that many people researching in this field are familiar with, KOSGEB provides prioritized grants to female entrepreneurs. Within this scope, KOSGEB offers 50,000 TL to prospective female entrepreneurs who are still in the process of setting up their businesses, and 100,000 TL for established businesses, with the financial support provided by Halkbank.

KAGIDER

Women Entrepreneurs Association of Turkey, KAGIDER, aims to help women realize their dreams, rise in their career life, and gain their own social and economic independence in a more egalitarian way through several projects they implement. It is possible to participate in KAGIDER's projects, which has significantly expanded its scope of activity, from all age groups and many different fields.

TOBB Women Entrepreneurs Board

In this structure established by the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey, many panels and seminars are organized for women to develop themselves in the career field. In addition, trainees receiving education within the scope of coaching programs have the opportunity to do internships with experienced entrepreneurs.

Trendyol Strong Women Program

As a company accommodating many female entrepreneurs engaged in e-commerce and e-export, it would be unthinkable not to mention this project of Trendyol! As we mentioned at the beginning of our article, Trendyol, founded by a female entrepreneur, also provides financial, technical, and educational support in various fields to female entrepreneurs who will sell on its platform. We look forward to welcoming all our female entrepreneurs, who want to rise in their domestic commercial activities and expand abroad with their brands, into Navlungo!

Ministry of Family and Social Policies

Under the program offered by the ministry, entrepreneurial women can apply with their projects to benefit from financial support. Within the scope of the project, interest-free credit support as well as payment convenience are provided to innovative women.

Banks

In addition to the examples listed above, various public and private banks can also offer special opportunities for female entrepreneurs within the financial services they provide. Some of these banks are:

• Finansbank

• Vakıfbank

• TEB

• İş Bankası

• Garanti Bankası

• Ziraat Bankası

• Akbank

• Denizbank

• Yapı Kredi Bankası

• Halkbank

Navlungo in the Sector with Female Employees!

Operating as a logistics and technology startup, it is proud to witness the rise of both our own team and the female customers we work with at Navlungo! While male dominance is prominently present in the cargo, logistics, warehousing, and software sectors in which we serve, it is possible to say that we observe equality in our employment rates and that we are at a pioneering point in the sector in this regard. As of the day this article was published, as Navlungo & ParkPalet, our total team has reached 72 people in our sales, operations, warehouse, software, and other departments, while more than 30 female employees successfully operate in every department!

Support Projects for Female Entrepreneurs from Navlungo

As Navlungo, one of our most sensitive areas is female entrepreneurs! Led by our Co-founder Ceren Tuna, we carry out various programs for our customers and followers who want to sell on foreign marketplaces, turn their hobbies into business, and bring their brands globally in this initiative we have started.

Before we list our projects, one of our female entrepreneurs, Gül Ayan, has a message for you! We highly recommend listening to our entrepreneur, who shares her story and tells you to set off!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCuplcb4jFE&t=2s

Coaching Program

Led by experienced Etsy sellers, dear Khrystyna Başalı and Kerem Başalı, we provided one-on-one coaching support to our 3 lucky Etsy shop owner female entrepreneurs for 8 weeks, helping them increase their sales and grow their shops. Similarly, we were just a phone call away for their shipping processes!

If you want to listen to our story from dear Özen Öngören, one of our coaching project participants, you can access the relevant content on our social media accounts.

Women Entrepreneurs Arm in Arm Campaign

In this campaign we started specifically for November 19th World Female Entrepreneurs Day, we said, "Let female entrepreneurs rise arm in arm." 10 lucky Navlungo-using female entrepreneurs, who applied to the campaign with their friend, had the opportunity to receive one-on-one training with their friends and learn aspects they were curious about regarding Etsy trading. 

Etsy Consulting Program

In this collaboration with the dear Etsy Turkey team, we worked closely with Gaia Stil, who wanted to bring her brand to the global platform, and accompanied her export adventure with Etsy over a long term. Those curious about the subject can watch our video uploaded to our YouTube channel.

Turkish Education Foundation & Navlungo Support Scholarship Fund for Female Engineers

We have some heartwarming news that we want to announce to you here for the first time!

With our collaboration carried out with the Turkish Education Foundation, TEV scholars will now be able to benefit from the scholarship fund provided by Navlungo and ParkPalet by Navlungo. In addition to this scholarship we will provide to female students studying at engineering faculties, we will gather together with our scholars to provide mentoring and get to know them better. We are already very excited for our future scholars; if you also want to contribute, click!

Lastly

We wanted to share with you what was in our hearts on behalf of our team, the female entrepreneurs who inspire us, the projects, and what we do under the Navlungo umbrella.

It is possible to say that compiling this article made us experience various emotions together. While we do not want to end our article with tragic stories, injustices, and inequalities that are hard to make sense of today, we accept them as a reality of our lives and invite all of you to face the other side of the coin, seeing it as the most basic step to building strong tomorrows.

As the Navlungo team, we embrace with all our love those women who have faced injustice because of who they are, and whose basic rights and freedoms have been taken away!

Hoping that this solidarity among us grows exponentially and leads us to more beautiful tomorrows!

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