Turkey Opens Women's Innovation Hub With Childcare

Women entrepreneurs in Turkey just got a powerful new launchpad for turning their tech ideas into thriving businesses.

The Women and Democracy Foundation opened its Women in Innovation Information Center in Istanbul this week, combining coworking space, investor meetings, business mentorship, and something rarely seen in entrepreneurship hubs: onsite childcare. The center aims to help women overcome the barriers that have kept them from accessing the same opportunities as their male counterparts.

The numbers tell a striking story. Between 2019 and 2025, women co-founded one in every four startups that received funding in Turkey. Over 570 female founders attracted $1.4 billion in investment during that period. Yet in 2025, women captured just 19% of private sector investment, revealing a persistent gap in funding access.

Industry and Technology Minister Mehmet Fatih Kacır shared encouraging data at the opening ceremony. Turkey now ranks first globally in the proportion of women inventors among international patent applicants. Over the past 23 years, the government has provided $645 million to support 233,000 female researchers and $23.5 billion to help 85,000 female entrepreneurs through various programs.

The new center launched with a DemoDay event where 20 women entrepreneurs pitched projects spanning artificial intelligence, biotechnology, agriculture, and sustainability to potential investors. These entrepreneurs emerged from KADEM's Women in Innovation Program, which has received nearly 3,000 applications since 2015 and expanded to attract participants from 22 countries.

Sümeyye Erdoğan Bayraktar, who chairs KADEM's Board of Trustees, pointed to the progress already made. The share of female entrepreneurs in Turkey has grown from 13.1% in 2002 to 18% in 2025, with 1.24 million women now running their own businesses.

But she emphasized that potential alone isn't enough. Women need accessible resources, mentorship networks, and funding opportunities that match their capabilities and ambitions.

The Ripple Effect

When women gain equal access to entrepreneurship resources, entire economies benefit. Turkey's 115 technology parks now employ 36,000 women, while research and development centers employ another 28,000. As more women secure funding and scale their innovations, they create jobs, mentor other women, and demonstrate what's possible when barriers fall.

The center represents more than just office space. By addressing practical needs like childcare alongside business development, it acknowledges the real obstacles women face and builds solutions around them.

Turkey is betting that women's knowledge and productive capacity can drive economic growth, and they're putting resources behind that belief.