Türkiye’s Small and Medium Enterprises Development Organization, KOSGEB, has revamped its Entrepreneur Support Program, which is designed to improve the sustainability of newly established businesses. Applications for the third 2026 period of the Business Development Support scheme opened on October 12 and will remain available until October 31, 2026.
The call announced by Industry and Technology Minister Mehmet Fatih Kacır is open only to businesses that meet the program’s eligibility rules. Submitting an application does not automatically create an entitlement to funding. According to KOSGEB’s official program page, projects will first undergo eligibility and document checks before being scored by a board and jury. Successful projects will then be selected through a ranking process.
Support can reach TRY 2.5 million
The standard ceiling for Business Development Support is TRY 2.25 million. An additional TRY 250,000 may be added when the entrepreneur is young, female, disabled, a veteran or a first-degree relative of a fallen service member. The maximum available amount can therefore reach TRY 2.5 million.
The support rate is 80% and the funding is repayable. Projects can run for 24 months. Eligible expenditure may include personnel costs; machinery, equipment and moulds; software; and selected outside services such as training, consulting, certification, testing, analysis, marketing, design and industrial property rights. Rent, vehicles, real estate, land, animals, renovation and decoration are not covered by the scheme.
Who is eligible to apply?
Business Development Support is aimed at companies operating in KOSGEB-designated fields and, as a general rule, businesses established no more than three years ago. Eligible activities include manufacturing; telecommunications; computer programming and consultancy; information infrastructure, data processing and hosting; and scientific research and development. KOSGEB says the age requirement does not apply to businesses holding a recognised techno-entrepreneurship badge.
An applicant must be actively registered in the KOSGEB database and must have an up-to-date business declaration. Applications are filed through KOSGEB’s electronic services portal using Türkiye’s e-Government authentication system. The project application form, project information document and required attachments must be uploaded and the application must be formally approved in the system before the deadline. Incomplete applications or files not approved on time will not enter the evaluation process.
How the evaluation will work
KOSGEB will first check eligibility, document format and mandatory attachments. Applications that pass this stage will be scored out of 100 by a board and jury. The final ranking will determine which projects receive support. The board will also decide which requested expenses are eligible, as well as the approved quantities, amounts and minimum technical specifications.
Applicants may update a draft before the deadline, but any corrected file must be approved again before the application period closes. KOSGEB says the control, scoring and ranking results are final. Companies that are not selected may apply in a later period if they continue to satisfy the program’s conditions.
A separate interest or profit-share option
The revised program also includes a separate Business Development Interest/Profit Share Support option for young and female entrepreneurs. Eligible businesses with a jury score of at least 50 may receive non-repayable support covering 50% of the interest or profit-share rate on financing of up to TRY 1 million. A business cannot use this facility and the main Business Development Support at the same time.
Figures cited by Kacır show the scale of the program since its introduction in 2024. Under the Business Establishment Support component, 31,250 companies received a combined TRY 645 million. Decisions worth TRY 6.4 billion were issued for 4,476 Business Development Support projects, while TRY 2.4 billion was paid to 2,400 projects.
Entrepreneurs considering an application should verify their activity code, company age, current declaration and project documentation directly on KOSGEB’s official pages. The deadline for the third 2026 application period is October 31. The announced ceilings describe the maximum support available under the rules; actual approval depends on eligibility checks, scoring and the final ranking.
