Women-led technology startups in emerging markets need lenders to assess their customer relationships, digital footprints and revenue potential rather than rely primarily on property collateral, according to Gökçe Duman, co-founder of Turkish conversational AI company Ingosa.
Duman, speaking at the 2026 World Bank Group and International Monetary Fund (IMF) Annual Meetings, described how her company struggled to secure a bank guarantee needed to access a government grant despite having an emerging technology product and attracting interest from clients, partners and public institutions.
The company eventually secured support from Garanti BBVA, a Turkish bank, which progressed from being Ingosa’s client to a technology partner and supplier relationship. The experience, she said, demonstrates how a single financing decision can help a small technology business move from survival to growth.
“Superheroes don’t scale; systems do,” Duman said, urging financial institutions to build lending approaches that recognise the commercial potential of businesses without conventional physical assets.
Her account highlights a financing challenge facing small businesses in developing economies, particularly women-led technology ventures whose intangible assets, including software, intellectual property and customer data, may not fit traditional lending requirements.
Duman cited figures in her address indicating that all-female founding teams receive just 2% of global capital, women account for 15% of decision-makers, and as many as 70% of small and medium-sized enterprises in developing regions are excluded from financing. .
Ingosa developed conversational banner technology for advertising and market research, allowing brands to engage audiences through personalised digital interactions. Despite attracting customers and securing interest from potential partners, the company encountered resistance from banks that wanted conventional collateral.
“We were talking about AI, a technology startup, and paying customers, but they were all talking about bricks and mortar,” Duman said.
She said banks repeatedly asked whether the founders owned a building before Garanti BBVA eventually agreed to support the business. That relationship later expanded into work producing conversational banners for the bank’s financial services business, including a campaign that featured Duman on 14 billboards across Istanbul.
According to her, Ingosa grew from two founders to a team of 10 within a year of the company’s development, generating billions of digital impressions and thousands of customer interactions. She said the company began working with Unilever, Ford and Garanti BBVA, although she did not provide revenue figures or disclose the value of those contracts.
The company has also closed a new funding round with FutureBright Ventures, a Turkish venture and research firm, according to Duman. It co-developed InsightMate, a digital research tool for digital and research teams that is already being used by financial institutions in Türkiye and Azerbaijan, she said.
The company’s progress offers an example of how access to commercial partnerships and financing can help technology businesses expand beyond their initial market. It also underlines the role of corporate customers in providing revenue, credibility and opportunities to develop products for larger organisations.
“Your real investors are your customers,” Duman said. Her appeal comes as development finance institutions and governments seek to expand private-sector investment and employment in emerging markets. The challenge is particularly significant for small businesses, which account for a large share of employment but often lack the collateral and financial histories required by conventional lending models.
Duman called on financial institutions to recognise early customer traction, paying clients and digital activity when assessing women-led technology businesses. Rather than treating such companies as applicants without sufficient security, she argued, lenders should consider the commercial evidence they can already demonstrate.
For Ingosa, the decision by one bank to support its business helped create a pathway from a small startup to a technology supplier and a company developing products for regional markets. Duman’s broader argument is that such outcomes should depend less on individual breakthroughs and more on financing systems capable of recognising how modern businesses create value.
