Artificial Intelligence Factory

Established in 2023, Artificial Intelligence Factory is a corporate venture capital firm and acceleration program dedicated to fostering artificial intelligence (AI) innovations. The firm strategically invests in AI startups, aiming to contribute to their global success by providing tailored support and resources. With initial investments of $500,000+, they deliver more than capital; they fuel global growth with resources, trust, and momentum. Leveraging the strong synergy of Türkiye İş Bankası and its group companies, they create proof of concept and corporate collaboration opportunities for their startups and help them connect with institutions and ecosystem partners. Through their mentor network of industry leaders, academics, and public-sector experts, they enable startups to build local and global connections while providing hands-on business development support. They deliver a tailored, founder-focused support model that extends beyond initial investment and enables long-term, venture-scale growth. Their investment focus spans various sectors, including technology, healthcare, energy, real estate, telecommunications, media, finance, retail, education, agriculture, logistics, transportation, construction, manufacturing, and entertainment. Their geographical focus is primarily on Turkey, and they invest in companies at seed, early stage, and growth stages. Their investment size ranges from $500,000 to $1 million. Their mission is to empower startups to build global partnerships, connect with investors, and increase their international visibility. Through events like the International AI Days, they bring together investors, technology leaders, VCs, operators, and founders across a broad landscape stretching from Europe to the United States. Beyond investor interactions, they open doors to new markets by fostering global engagement with leading entrepreneurship platforms, universities, and top-tier talent networks. These connections help startups build meaningful international relationships and position themselves confidently on the global stage. They believe a thriving ecosystem is built not only through their own relationships but through the meaningful connections that stakeholders form with each other. To enable this, they bring together startups, investors, corporates, academia, the public sector, and emerging talent through flagship gatherings like the 100 AI Startups & Investor Ecosystem Meetup and the YZF Industry Awards. To date, these gatherings have connected more than 3,000 participants. Through these events, they create an inclusive environment that encourages new collaborations, joint projects, and meaningful interactions across the entire AI ecosystem. By leading the Workup and Workup AStart programs, they support early-stage startups with mentorship, workshops, proof of concept opportunities, and corporate connections. The journey begins with candidates selected from their database of nearly 3,000 startups and continues with teams admitted to the program following jury evaluations. Over the course of 3 to 6 months, they provide workshops and training sessions across key areas ranging from financial planning and investment strategy to market access, enterprise sales, and effective pitching. Throughout the programs, they help startups connect with the right stakeholders and support them as they build and grow. They support startups throughout their scale-up journey with hands-on guidance in strategy, marketing, global expansion, and business development. To date, they have facilitated more than 250 curated introductions across the İşbank Group, corporate partners, investors, and key ecosystem stakeholders. From building corporate partnerships and amplifying marketing announcements to accessing global partners and preparing for fundraising rounds, they stay closely aligned with founders at every stage. They also ease their operational burden with technology and software support packages valued at over $600,000, allowing teams to stay focused on building and scaling.