Entrepreneurship Ecosystem
Sabancı Ventures
Sabancı Ventures is the corporate venture capital arm of Sabancı Holding, adopting global best practices and aiming to create value for all parties through strong commercial partnerships, leveraging the knowledge base, operational excellence, and global network of Sabancı Holding companies. Additionally, Sabancı Ventures aligns its investment decisions with the six principles of the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI).
As a corporate venture capital fund, Sabancı Ventures invests in revenue-generating, technology-based startups of the new generation, fostering strong synergies and value creation opportunities between its portfolio companies and Sabancı Group companies. It aims to help ventures with scalable business models realize their global expansion potentials. Sabancı Ventures typically invests in companies from seed stage to Series A, but may also consider investments in later-stage companies.
Sabancı Ventures acts as a "sensor" to identify new growth areas for the Group companies and actively evaluates investment opportunities in innovative business models and/or advanced technologies. It focuses on emerging fields such as Internet of Things (IoT), productive artificial intelligence (GenAI) and big data, climate technologies, financial technologies, health technologies, mobility, advanced materials, and cloud technology. Sabancı Ventures has made direct corporate venture capital investments in 13 companies across five countries, with total investments exceeding USD 13 million to date.
As part of its overall corporate venture capital (CVC) strategy, Sabancı Group has invested in over 20 companies since 2020 through various subsidiaries and fund structures, surpassing a total investment amount of USD 50 million.
Sabancı Ventures Website
Sabanci Climate Ventures
Sabanci Climate Technologies is fully owned by Hacı Ömer Sabanci Holding A.Ş. (“Sabanci Holding”), a Turkish investment holding company with a global presence across four continents, capturing ~7% of the Istanbul Stock Exchange (BIST) market capitalization as of 2022. Sabanci Holding is a leading player in the Turkish energy industry covering generation, trading, distribution, and retail of energy, with over 23 power plants across Türkiye and an installed generation capacity of over 3.7 GW, with a goal of reaching 5.0 GW by 2027.
Sabanci Climate Technologies, the international arm of Sabanci Energy Group, will bridge the gap between emerging and developed markets in energy and climate transition. It will address the challenges of the next two decades by developing a sizable renewable portfolio under Sabanci Renewables and future energy challenges via investing in disruptive technologies under Climate Ventures. For Sabanci Holding, it was time to leverage core capabilities in energy and expand the business to create higher value for all stakeholders.
Sabanci Renewables is involved in the U.S. renewables market by leveraging the execution and operational capabilities of its existing energy companies to establish a sizable renewables portfolio that includes onshore wind, utility-scale solar, and battery storage. Sabanci Renewables Inc. positioned itself as a power power plant owner and operator in the short term and a service provider to other energy investors in the medium term. Thanks to power plant investments, Sabanci Renewables Inc. aims to reduce carbon emissions, create employment, and contribute to the regional economy.
Sabanci Climate Ventures is interested in investing in energy & climate technologies-focused disruptive startups that will create a new energy value chain and support entrepreneurs in building successful business models by leveraging the know-how of an established utility player and bridging the gap between emerging and developed markets.
Sabanci Climate Ventures Website
Sabancı ARF (Almost Ready to Fly)
Sabancı ARF (Almost Ready to Fly) is an acceleration program open to Sabancı Group employees and external entrepreneurs, focusing on early-stage ventures (such as MVP, prototype, laboratory stage, or customer validation stage) or newly launched ventures in the market. The program is centered around Energy and Climate Technologies, Advanced Materials Technologies, Digital Technologies, and Health Technologies, aiming to accelerate the commercialization processes of selected entrepreneurs.
Our goal at Sabancı ARF is to support open innovation and assist entrepreneurs in nurturing new ideas/technologies, providing mentorship, structural support, and early-stage funding to help them succeed. For community and external entrepreneurs who qualify for the program, Sabancı Holding subsidiaries offer business development opportunities, establish customer connections, develop strategic partnerships, and provide avenues for commercialization.
Within the program, entrepreneurs are expected to successfully conduct product/service development trials, create product/service prototypes, and secure their first customer connections, supported by a budget of $30,000. On the final day, entrepreneurs present investor pitches to a jury. If the jury decision is positive, they qualify for seed funding from Sabancı ARF. Following the jury day, Sabancı ARF On Air Demo Day allows qualifying entrepreneurs to announce their investment awards and concludes the program period, facilitating networking with the entrepreneurial ecosystem and investors.
Sabancı ARF Website