Financial Times published a news titled "How Türkiye Became a Star of European Tech" on the rising power of the Turkish entrepreneurship ecosystem on August 12.
Türkiye, with its entrepreneurial business culture, young and tech savvy population have been attracting significant investments from global players. According to FT, “This year's hottest new idea in online retail started not in Silicon Valley but in Istanbul. Tech investors have poured billions of dollars into startups delivering groceries in just 10 minutes and its pioneer, Getir, is now valued at USD 7.5 billion."
In the last year, apart from Getir, the Turkish entrepreneurship sector has raised four unicorns including online gaming companies Peak Games and Dream Games, and ecommerce platforms Trendyol and Hepsiburada. Also, many other startups were able to get funding from investors during the pandemic.
“E-commerce penetration in Türkiye is estimated to have risen from 3.5 percent three years ago to about 10 percent today, driven by the pandemic effect that has supercharged online retail all over the world…But while the flurry of investment has put Istanbul on the map alongside other European tech clusters such as London, Paris and Berlin, its newfound success has been many years in the making."
The article also included promising comments from executives of Zynga, General Atlantic, Earlybird, Tripledot Studios, and Index Ventures on the Turkish startup ecosystem. Stephane Kurgan, a partner at Index Ventures, the venture capital firm that backed Dream, said: “You have a community of game developers in Türkiye who are world class now."
Source: https://www.ft.com/content/1010e729-a33f-4fd8-acd6-e5391bca45e0