Building a successful startup ecosystem
Entrepreneurs come in waves that follow certain trends. The first wave of entrepreneurship in Turkey arose in the 2000s continuing into the early 2010s when internet usage increased dramatically. In this period, we saw startups such as Markafoni and Yemeksepeti acquired by foreign investors for significant sums, the largest investment in a female-founded company, Trendyol.com and we also saw some globally renowned investors such as Kleiner Perkins, General Atlantic, Tiger Global and Wamda Capital investing in Turkey. The second wave came with the mobile internet, and B2B technology adaptation; in the 2012–2016 period start-ups which attracted investors’ interest the most and got market traction were either from mobile (Scorp, Getir, BiTaksi) or B2B (iyzico, Insider, Paraşüt) verticals.
Next wave of companies will compete in the global market with innovative products and services instead of localization of foreign business models. Is Turkish ecosystem ready to train and promote these start-ups?
Our team has been working with entrepreneurs in Turkey since the first wave. While traveling the world and discovering other ecosystems, we had the chance to compare and contrast Turkey’s strengths, weaknesses, and potential. In this research, we intended to summarize our learnings, extract insights from global success stories, and provide a snapshot of Turkey’s current status.
You can download the report from this link.
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