10 Turcorns aimed by 2023
ADDRESSING the online “Turkish Startup Ecosystem 2021 Second Quarter Conference” event, Industry and Technology Minister Mustafa Varank recalled that Turkey announced its first “Turcorn,” a term to describe Turkish unicorns, last year with Peak Games, reminding the world of its potential.
Stating that this success was not a coincidence but was proven with the emergence of Getir and Dream Games as new Turcorns at the beginning of this year, Varank said Turkey still has a long way to go to reach “the goal of achieving at least 10 Turcorns by 2023.”
STARTUP ECOSYSTEM
The minister pointed out that the performance of the startup ecosystem in the second quarter of 2021 confirms this.
Varank recalled that 63 startups from Turkey received an investment of $746 million in the last three months.
“With this performance, our country surpassed many European countries such as Finland, Norway, Austria, Denmark, Ireland, Italy and Belgium. When we look at the first six months of the year, we see that 129 startups from our country reached an investment volume of nearly $1.3 billion.”
VENTURE CAPITAL FUNDS
The minister also pointed out that venture capital funds are vital for the startup ecosystem. “TechInvesTR comes first among the funds we have created,” he continued. “In the program, we developed in cooperation with TÜBİTAK (Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey) and the Treasury and Finance Ministry, we created a ‘fund of funds’ mechanism. Through this fund, we will contribute to five venture capital funds that will invest in Turkey. In this way, we anticipate reaching a fund size of approximately TL 1.7 billion ($199 million) and investing in approximately 150 technology-based early-stage startups.”
TL 300 MILLION SUPPORT
He also stated that they also support entrepreneurs through development agencies, TÜBİTAK and Small and Medium Industry Development Organization (KOSGEB).
“Within the scope of the TÜBİTAK Individual Young Entrepreneur Program (BIGG) program, we have opened 12 calls and received more than 35,000 business idea applications. We turned 4,500 business ideas into business plans and evaluated them in the second stage panels. Some 1,500 of them were entitled to receive support and established techno-enterprise companies. The amount of support we have provided to these companies has approached TL 300 million,” he added.
Varank also asked Getir founder Nazım Salur, who also attended the event, about his plans to support new entrepreneurs and if he is considering establishing a venture capital fund.
“This is our debt to Turkish society, to these lands. We just have to get the timing right,” Salur answered and continued: “We started to invest in startups related to Getir’s business. If we lead by creating some funds in the coming years, many of our friends and colleagues say, ‘We will also invest in the fund.’ I think we can raise several hundred million dollars in funds here. We have to do this at the right time. That’s what I intend to do in the next few years.”
Regarding the opening to the stock market, Salur also said: “We find the money from venture capital funds under the conditions we want. There are advantages and disadvantages of collecting investments from the stock market. I don’t think we will need it in the next two years, as we currently find it in suitable conditions.”
He underlined that with the recent investments, the main focus will be on the U.S. market. “We are currently satisfied with the figures in Europe. There was a ready-made organization for Italy, Spain and Portugal. We incorporated it with the acquisition.”
Salur was referring to Getir’s recent acquisition of Blok, a Spanish instant delivery service. Blok is active in Spain and Italy, where its biggest markets have been Madrid, Barcelona and Milan.
“We will act according to the results of the pandemic in South America. However, with our latest investment, our main focus will be on the U.S. market. Our success here will be decisive,” Salur said, adding that the pandemic did not have an impact on their success and that post-pandemic numbers proved this.
Getir began its global expansion in January. It launched in London in the first month of the year and started providing its services in Amsterdam in May.
Last month it launched its services in Paris and Berlin. Several cities in the United States are to follow in the last three months of the year.