Refabric and Homster, two artificial intelligence-driven startups supported by Türk Telekom’s Pilot accelerator program, took the stage at this week’s startups.watch third-quarter event to share their international success stories and innovative solutions in textile and interior design.
Refabric CEO and co-founder Begüm Doğru Öztekin highlighted the company’s end-to-end AI solutions for textile and fashion professionals. Emphasizing Türkiye’s strength as a textile powerhouse, Öztekin explained that Refabric’s platform reduces operational workload and physical sample needs by up to 85%, enabling more sustainable and market-ready outputs.
Türk Telekom’s strategic support
Refabric operates as a B2B cloud-based software and was recognized by Business of Fashion as one of the top four global firms offering design solutions. Excluding jewelry, it ranks among the top three.
The company actively collaborates with retail giants like H&M and their manufacturers in Türkiye, Portugal, Bangladesh and Egypt.
Öztekin credited Türk Telekom’s Pilot program for providing weekly mentorship and online sessions. She noted that the program facilitated introductions to potential clients, investors and legal advisors in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), helping Refabric navigate company formation and market entry. The startup is currently in a seed funding round.
Interior design with U.S. patent
Homster co-founder Barış Bal announced that the company has developed the world’s first fully automated interior design technology, now patented in the United States.
Homster has integrated this technology with an AI agent developed specifically for the home retail sector. Through its service called Lifestyler, it works seamlessly within home retailers’ websites to understand consumer needs in real time and guide them, within seconds, toward the right products, material combinations and designs.
Bal emphasized that their solutions go beyond simple image enhancer applications that just transform photos into different styles – they offer functional interior design that meets the real needs of the industry.
Homster stated that their area of specialization is the $1.3 trillion home retail market, with a particular focus on furniture companies, especially those selling living room and dining room sets.
U.S. expansion
Homster closed its first funding round 1.5 years ago, led by 100. Yıl Venture Capital Investment Fund and Işbank’s corporate venture capital arm, Tibas Ventures. Bal stated that 70% of the second round is now complete, with plans to launch U.S. operations in the third or fourth quarter next year based on strong performance metrics.
The startup has begun proof-of-concept (POC) projects with major Turkish brands and plans to announce its first partnerships next month. Bal added that aside from himself, the entire team consists of developers, including an award-winning head of design.
He emphasized that long-term competitive advantage in AI will come from developing deep, vertical-specific tools that AI agents can access and leverage.
Global achievements
Refabric has achieved notable international recognition.
It became the first Turkish-founded company accepted into the acceleration program of LVMH, the world’s largest luxury brand group, which includes Louis Vuitton and Dior.
The company was also accepted into the acceleration program of ETAM, one of France’s long-established companies.
The company was founded 2.5 years ago in Delaware and has an office in Paris (Station F).
Thanks to ongoing POCs and collaborations with Dior, Louis Vuitton, Patou, Givenchy and Loro Piana, their Station F office has been granted free access for another year.
TÜBITAK’s BiGG fund revives Türkiye’s early-stage startup pipeline
Türkiye’s startup ecosystem saw a critical boost in early-stage activity during the third quarter of 2025, largely driven by the Technological Research Council of Türkiye’s (TÜBITAK) BiGG Fund.
According to industry monitor startups.watch’s July-September report, more than half of all recorded investment rounds in the first nine months of the year were supported by this government-backed initiative.
Out of 240 total investment rounds year-to-date, 104 were attributed to BiGG Fund support. Without these, the count drops to just 136, highlighting the fund’s dominant role in sustaining seed-stage deal flow, according to data shared by startups.watch’s founder Serkan Ünsal.
Seed-stage recovery
The BiGG Fund played a pivotal role in reviving Türkiye’s seed-stage investment activity following a period of slowdown. In the third quarter alone, 122 seed-stage deals were recorded, but that number drops to just 40 when BiGG investments are excluded.
Ünsal stated that over 100 startups have been founded thanks to the BiGG support, each receiving TL 900,000 in funding at the company formation stage.
Süha Soydan of Özyeğin University emphasized that while the BiGG program previously operated as a grant scheme, it has now transitioned into an investment model, currently offering TL 900,000 ($21,455) in funding per startup.
Health, AI
BiGG Fund activity significantly increased deal volume in verticals such as artificial intelligence, health technologies or healthtech, and biotechnology, or biotech, reshaping their positions within the top 10 sectors.
For instance, out of the 60 AI investments made year-to-date, 25 were backed by BiGG. Ünsal said that even without BiGG, the AI vertical still maintained its lead in deal count.
The report noted that BiGG Fund investments have helped cushion the impact of declining deal counts and provided short-term recovery in early-stage activity.
5G investments could herald Türkiye’s next wave of unicorns
As Türkiye completes its preparations for the transition to 5G, the new technology is expected to trigger a second wave of growth in the startup ecosystem, beyond simply increasing communication speed.
But rather than consumer apps, the new era could be driven by industrial innovation. The next unicorns may not be delivery platforms or gaming apps, but AI-powered diagnostics, autonomous logistics networks or energy optimization platforms.
Just as 3G paved the way for platforms Yemeksepeti, Hepsiburada and Trendyol and 4G enabled the rise of Peak Games, Dream Games, Insider and Getir, experts now anticipate that 5G will give birth to a new generation of “industrial unicorns.”
Unlike the consumer-centric digital ventures of the 4G era, the 5G wave is expected to foster startups in manufacturing, health care, mobility and energy sectors where data-driven business models and real-time operations will thrive.
The mobile revolution, driven by 4G, produced Türkiye’s first unicorns. Now, 5G is laying the groundwork for a second wave, where the focus will extend beyond consumer apps.
From consumer to industrial revolution
The 4G era was defined by a mobile consumer revolution. Before its rollout in the early 2010s, Türkiye’s internet startup scene was relatively limited. But with widespread mobile internet access, companies like Yemeksepeti, Trendyol, Getir, Peak Games and Insider achieved global success.
4G enabled the mobile economy; now 5G is poised to unlock its industrial counterpart, spanning autonomous vehicles, smart cities and remote healthcare services.
More than speed
5G is not just about faster connectivity. It’s about enabling entirely new business models.
Its ultra-low latency (1 millisecond), high connection density (1 million devices per square kilometer) and low energy consumption open the doors to startups to develop innovative models.
Thanks to autonomous systems, we’ll begin to see drone deliveries and fleets of driverless vehicles. Internet of Things (IoT) solutions will become widespread, enabling smart manufacturing and sensor-based optimization.
In health care, remote diagnostics and real-time patient monitoring applications will become more common. In education and entertainment, AR/VR-based interactive experiences will flourish. In agriculture, we’ll see the rise of smart irrigation and sensor-supported production management.
Simya VC invests in AI-powered compliance platform Surveill
International early-stage accelerator fund Simya VC has invested in Surveill, an AI-driven regulatory technology (RegTech) platform focused on managing communication and marketing compliance.
In the funding round, which alongside Simya VC also included angel investors, Surveill raised a total of $1 million.
The platform plans to use the investment to enhance its business intelligence capabilities, scale its operations globally, deepen its compliance automation and analytics capabilities and grow its team.
Surveill focuses on managing communication and marketing compliance. (Courtesy of Surveill)
Simya VC, launched by Türkiye’s first venture capital fund 212, aims to support early-stage startups with high growth potential. Surveill’s inclusion in this round reflects its strategic positioning in the regulatory technology space.
Reducing compliance risk
Surveill is an AI-powered compliance platform that delivers fully regulation-compliant solutions for communication and marketing processes.
Focusing on the management of internal and customer-facing electronic communications in line with regulatory standards, Surveill provides AI-driven tools that reduce compliance risk and enhance operational efficiency in highly regulated sectors such as banking, brokerage and asset/portfolio management.
The platform captures and analyzes content across email, social media, web, chat and collaboration apps, combining automation with human-led review processes to deliver customizable compliance oversight tailored to each organization’s needs. It transforms multi-day review cycles into minute-long processes.
