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Social 29 Nov 2021

Garanti BBVA, Hepsiburada join forces to empower female entrepreneurs

Garanti BBVA and Hepsiburada, two representatives of the banking and e-commerce sector in Turkey, are collaborating to strengthen the power of Turkey's female entrepreneurs. An alliance that marks the first e-commerce platform that supports female entrepreneurship with projects such as Garanti BBVA and The Technology Power program for Entrepreneurial Women, which has been leading efforts to empower female entrepreneurs for 15 years.

With this new collaboration, female entrepreneurs who sell through the Hepsiburada platform and receive their payments using Garanti BBVA accounts will be able to take advantage of the many opportunities the bank has prepared for them. Through this collaboration, female entrepreneurs can use credits under favorable conditions with a 3-month grace period and will also be exempt from the first year card fee for Bonus Business cards.

All women's initiatives are also provided with an annual 10-leaf checkbook free of charge, payday payment opportunities, together with Garanti private pension plans and SME Insurance facilities with highly favourable conditions. Through Garanti BBVA’s online banking and mobile app, these customers will also benefit from 100 free wire transfers/EFTs. On top of the opportunity to pay salaries through this collaboration, Garanti BBVA will pay the employees of female entrepreneurs a promotional payment of TL 365 per person, and will also offer employees free credit cards and wire transfers/EFTs through digital channels in the first year. Female entrepreneurs who use the all-around platform for their e-commerce needs will be able to access detailed information about this collaboration at garantibbva.com.tr.

“Every opportunity to support female entrepreneurs is very valuable to us”

Sibel Kaya, vice president of SME Banking at Garanti BBVA, highlighted this new collaboration with Hepsiburada: "At Garanti BBVA, we believe that the most important driving force of economic and social development for a sustainable world is female entrepreneurship and women's presence in business.” She added that it is in this context that the bank “continues to support female entrepreneurs by taking a holistic approach to our 15 years of continuous work with our leading female entrepreneur program.” The executive said that it is with this understanding that the bank “aims to reach more entrepreneurial women by collaborating with a valuable institution such as Hepsiburada, which makes important contributions to manufacturers and entrepreneurs in the rapidly growing e-commerce market.”

Commenting on the  scope of their collaboration, Garanti’s Kaya said that they will offer “many advantages to women entrepreneurs from Hepsiburada, especially loans under favorable conditions with a 3-month grace period. With this cooperation,” she added, “we will help our female entrepreneurs to protect their financial health, benefit from regulating their cash flows and provide the advantage of accessing our products and services free of charge or under favorable conditions. We will continue to support female entrepreneurs who strengthen the economy in financing, encouraging, training and opening up to new markets for the sustainability of their businesses."

Hepsiburada chief commercial officer Murat Büyümez said, "At Hepsiburada, we continue our efforts to minimize and support the impacts of the challenging pandemic period on female entrepreneurs, albeit with diminishing effects. This new collaboration with Garanti BBVA is an important step towards the same goal and to continue our support for our female entrepreneurs.” Speaking on behalf of a brand that has supported women's presence in all aspects of life he drew attention to the fact that since 2017, the brand has been “providing support to entrepreneurial women in education, marketing and operational processes with our Technology Power program for Entrepreneurial Women.” The executive continued by highlighting the many new collaborations and investments that have been “implemented to reach more entrepreneurial women during the pandemic period, and thus continue to act as leverage in the economy.”