Turkish ventures received millions in investment in 2018
According to Startups. Watch figures, some 16 ventures that are part of the Turkish entrepreneurial ecosystem will receive more than $8.5 million in investments in the second quarter of 2018, pushing the total figure in the first half of the year to $27.5
DESPITE a slight drop, investments in Turkey’s entrepreneurial ecosystem have continued in the second quarter of 2018. According to the Turkish market intelligence and analytics platform, Startsups.Watch, 16 ventures secured investment deals for almost $8.5 million during this period. With the recent development, investments in the first half of this year reached around $27.5 million. At an event that brought entrepreneurs, investors and experts together at Istanbul’s Kolektifhouse. At the event, the ventures and investors involved took the stage.
The decline in investments in the second quarter was influenced by the periodic investment rounds of global venture capital funds. The noteworthy investments of the second quarter went to “obilet” and “tapu.com.” The investment agreements of the two ventures were effective in this regard.
NOTEWORTHY VENTURES
In the second quarter event of the Startups.Watch, three ventures and their investors evaluated the agreement. Bizim Hesap, which solves small and medium-sized enterprises’ (SME) pre-accounting transactions with cloud software, announced details of the investment received from Fibabanka’s finance technology venture Finberg.
Companies’ car sharing solution Carbon, on the other hand, revealed the reasons for the investment deal with Nexus Ventures. Kimola, which specialized in big data, by following the tracks left by customers in the digital environment, shared how they convinced 500 Istanbul.
2018: THE YEAR OF BREAKOUTS
The breakouts of Trendyol and Gram Games in the second quarter of this year also made the first half of the year noteworthy. While Trendyol led the way with a valuation of $700 million, Gram Games succeeded in making the third largest breakout deal, worth $250 million. The fact that these ventures matured and found investors abroad became a ray of hope for the ecosystem.
VENTURE CAPITAL INVESTMENTS
According to Startups.Watch, corporate venture capital investments in the first half of this year reached $4.3 million, compared to $10.8 million in 2017. This year the number of companies heading for corporate venture capital is increasing. At the event, bank and financial institution executives discussed corporate venture capital investments.
İşbank Deputy General Manager Yalçın Sezen stressed that in today’s competitive conditions, it is inevitable to work with ventures and act with their agility. “Our support for the Workup Enterprise Acceleration Program continues. We have opened up our APIs to software developers to enhance collaboration with ventures. These ventures will increase our working areas, enabling us to be more agile,” he continued.
Yalçın Sezen also added that they will contribute significantly to the projects carried out by the state on the venture capital fund.
Fibabanka General Manager Ömer Mert said that its investment and financial technology venture Finberg generated a $50 million fund and made the initial investment in ventures like, “Garaj Sepeti” and “Bizim Hesap.”
“We have to act with the entrepreneurial ecosystem to compete as a younger bank,” Mert said.
Albaraka Türk Deputy General Manager Mustafa Çetin shared details of the venture acceleration program they established, pointing to the advantages of working with entrepreneurs.
NEW GENERATION VENTURES
New generation ventures also took the stage at the event. Six ventures supported by the institutions had the opportunity to talk about their projects in detail.
The venture, that supports young people who are currently trying to find the answer to questions like “which university,” “which department,” confuses most of the young people, explained their project with the support of İş Bank Workup.
Reminis, which provides access to event photographs of people with face recognition technology, made a presentation with the support of Türk Telekom PILOT.
The other ventures were Techsign supported by Albaraka Türk, Sensgreen green energy solutions supported by Google, Alya 3D Printer solutions backed by Turkcell, and Twentify digital customer management, supported by Netaş.