WorkupAgri Program Started with Kick Off

December 2, 2022

On 29 November 2022, Hackquarters and İşbank officially gave a start to the 2nd Batch of the WorkupAgri Entrepreneurship Program. WorkupAgri is a 4-month entrepreneurship program supporting startups in Smart Agriculture, Supply Chain, Climate Change, Circular Economy, Energy & Agricultural Resources, and Water Usage Management. From sustainable agriculture to water conservation, ecological packaging to agriculture drones, all new technologies and solutions are in the scope of the WorkupAgri. For the WorkupAgri 2nd Batch, 7 startups were selected out of 151 screened from 34 cities in Turkey. During the Program, startups will get an opportunity to test their solutions and start PoC with İşbank and partners.


The Kick-off event brought togetherAgritech and Sustainability entrepreneurs with program mentors, partners, and  İşbank executives responsible for Agriculture, Sustainability, and Entrepreneurship support. Agriculture's the basis of human civilization, from the air we breathe to the food we eat. Climate change has reached a point where farming and agriculture face serious difficulties, not only through environmental conditions but also through water conservation and keeping a healthy supply chain. The program was first initiated In 2021 by İşbank and Hackquarters, aiming to support and improve all aspects of agriculture to create a better future.  

Following the opening speech of Kaan Akın, Founder of Hackquarters, İzlem Erdem, Deputy Chief Executive of İşbank, shared the bank’s vision for the emerging agriculture sector. “As the sources are inadequate, we need to improve efficiency in agriculture as more food will be required. We are also experiencing a critical climate crisis now. At İşbank, we don’t approach the agricultural sector from a conventional banking perspective. In line with our founding vision, we look forward to transforming how we produce food and treat nature. This is the primary reason İşbank has initiated the WorkupAgri startup program.”

Kerem Akıner, Head of Agriculture Banking,  İşbank, took the scene. “I have been waiting for this moment since May. Whenever I meet with founders, I am impressed by their excitement to change the world and share their vision. Through our weekly meetings with founders, we are always trying to find novel ways to contribute to the world we’re living in.”

After the selected startups presented their solutions, the founders, during the networking session, got a chance to meet with the İşbank professionals, mentors, and investors to develop new paths to transform the world into a more sustainable one.

Here are 7 selected startups for the WorkupAgri 2nd Batch:


Coweathy: Cowealthy is a herd management solution that collects data from cows, such as movement and body temperature, and converts it into meaningful information using artificial intelligence algorithms.

Farmingo: Farmingo produces an autonomous spraying kit for sequential planting trees, which helps to reduce significantly the number of pesticides, water, and fuel consumed and increase crop yield by attaching to existing agricultural spraying machines.

Hydrolyx: Hyrdolyx provides energy conversion systems that generate carbon-neutral green hydrogen from wastewater.

Kozalak: Kozalak produces forest guard, an IoT-based mesh network system solution that provides early detection and warning in forest fires, measures the air quality, and detects toxic, flammable, and explosive gases.

Momentum R&D: Momentum R&D develops next-generation (small-scale) shrouded horizontal-axis wind turbines to offer sustainable energy resources for off-grid base stations as an alternative to diesel generators.

Move On
: Move On builds cloud-connected autonomous driving kits for tractors using artificial intelligence, computer vision, and sensor fusion (IoT) technology.

Nanomik
: Nanomik, develops & produces microencapsulated biopesticides for food and agricultural products that protect them against food spoilage without changing their quality.

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