TÜBİTAK provides great support for entrepreneurs to realize their business ideas with BiGG Investment.
1812 Investment Based Entrepreneurship Support Program (BiGG Investment) aims to support the activities of entrepreneurs from the idea stage to the market so that they can transform their technology and innovation-oriented business ideas into enterprises with high potential to create added value and qualified employment, thus encouraging qualified entrepreneurship and creating technology-based start-up companies that can compete in international markets, develop innovative, high-tech products and processes.
Under the program, entrepreneurs are provided with entrepreneurship training, as well as technical, commercial and administrative support from mentors with industry experience.
This program consists of three phases described below for transforming innovative business ideas into commercial products/processes/services. The entrepreneur can complete each stage in order and proceed to the next stage if deemed appropriate by TÜBİTAK.
a) Stage 1 is the stage where entrepreneurs submit their business ideas to implementing organizations, the implementing organization evaluates these business ideas, and provides accelerator services to entrepreneurs for business ideas that have a high probability of turning into a successful business plan. At this stage, Implementing Organizations provide entrepreneurs with mentoring, networking, training, etc., and carry out technical and commercial verification of the idea in the process of transforming the business idea into a business plan. Phase 1 is completed by the business plan deadline specified in the call for entrepreneurship project support.
Number of New Implementing Organizations Serving BiGG and BiGG Investment Entrepreneurs Increased
Within the scope of TÜBİTAK 1512 - BiGG and 1812 Investment Based Entrepreneurship Support Program (BiGG Investment), the number of new implementing organizations that will serve entrepreneurs in the 2023-2025 period has increased.
13 more organizations were included in the new Implementing Agency model, which was updated with TÜBİTAK's "Developing Together and Achieving Together Approach" and prioritizes sectoral and regional collaborations.
Within the scope of 1601-2022-2 coded 1512 Entrepreneurship Support Program - BiGG and 1812 Investment Based Entrepreneurship Support Program - BiGG Investment - 1st Phase Implementing Organization Call, 13 organizations were included as partner organizations in the projects with the approval of the organizations in the projects decided to be supported. Thus, the number of new Implementing Organizations reached 147.
As a reflection of the "Developing Together and Achieving Together" motivation, 37 of the 147 organizations involved in the 37 projects were identified as universities, 10 as university Technology Transfer Office (TTO) units and TTO AŞ, 43 as Technology Development Zones, 2 as public research centers and institutes, 3 as TEKMER, 4 as Research Infrastructure, 6 as banks and their subsidiaries, 5 as venture capital funds or angel investor networks, and 37 as capital companies.
The Implementing Organizations, which aim to develop the entrepreneurship ecosystem by combining their competencies and will carry out the BiGG and BiGG Investment Program 1st phase processes in the 2023-2025 period, will collect and evaluate the technology-oriented business idea applications of entrepreneurs, pre-incubate the business ideas they find suitable, put them through business idea verification processes and support entrepreneurs in preparing qualified business plans.
For Implementing Agencies click here.
b) Stage 2; For business plans that are deemed eligible for support as a result of the evaluation and entitled to receive the Seal of Excellence, entrepreneurs are asked by TÜBİTAK to establish a company in accordance with the definition of an organization. The organization enters into an investment agreement with the fund for a maximum of 5% of its shares in return for the amount covered by the support in Stage 2. The Board of Directors may reduce this rate or set a fixed rate lower than 5%. The investment share ratio is announced in the BiGG Investment Call. The fund's investment may consist of a share partnership, convertible debt or both.
The fund may acquire shares during the registration of the organization or may become a shareholder of the organization through a capital increase to be made after the registration of the organization. However, the fund may not become a shareholder of the organization by purchasing shares from the shareholders of the organization. After the capital increase, the share ratio of the fund in the organization cannot exceed the upper limit determined.
Debt convertible into shares is regulated by a separate debt agreement to be concluded between the fund and the organization and prepared in accordance with the "Communiqué on Principles Regarding Venture Capital Investment Funds" published in the Official Gazette dated 2/1/2014 and numbered 28870.
Following the investment contract, a project monitoring contract is signed between TÜBİTAK and the organization. Conceptual design, technical and economic feasibility, technological development (commercial prototype, demo, simulation, software algorithm, etc.) activities to be carried out by the organization within the framework of the business plan and the conversion of the outputs obtained as a result of these activities into commercial value are included in Phase 2.
c) Stage 3 is the stage that aims to increase the commercialization potential of the outputs obtained by the organization in the previous stage by improving their performance and functionality through R&D studies. Stage 3 starts with the application of the organization to TÜBİTAK 1507 SME R&D Start-up Support Program by preparing a project proposal and the evaluation of the technologically verified project within the framework of the criteria specific to this program. At this stage, activities such as detailed design, improvement of the commercial prototype in terms of function and performance, trials and field tests are carried out. Companies established by receiving support within the scope of Stage 2 of the TÜBİTAK 1812 coded Program or companies established by receiving Techno-Entrepreneurship Capital Support by public administrations under central government within the scope of the Law No. 5746 on Supporting Research, Development and Design Activities can apply to TÜBİTAK 1507 SME R&D Startup Support Program within 24 months after the end date of the support within the scope of Stage 3. The provisions of the Implementation Principles of TÜBİTAK 1507 SME R&D Startup Support Program are applied in the processes of supporting, monitoring and finalizing the projects within the scope of Phase 3.
Phase 3 applications can be made through the online application (Project Evaluation and Monitoring System -PRODIS) at http://eteydeb.tubitak.gov.tr independently of the 1507 Program calls. Phase 3 applications do not need to wait for the 1507 Program calls.