Emboldened by new funding, Turkish technology startups are prioritizing entry into global markets, as investor expectations also shift toward supporting ventures boasting the potential to achieve international success.
In contrast, startups that do not redirect their growth targets toward global markets are facing difficulties in finding investments.
This year, MentalUP, a gamified education startup co-owned by Türk Telekom; Fazla, a pioneering waste management company; and GoWit, a leading advertising technology brand are utilizing their investments to expand globally.
A major concern on a global scale, waste management and sustainability continue to make headlines across the world and continue to dominate the agenda.
In response to the challenge, Fazla seeks to prevent waste generation in multiple industries, ranging from food, textiles and packaging to chemicals.
Founded in 2016 by Arda Eren and Olcay Silahlı, Fazla aims to make an impact on waste management by converting existing waste into a circular economy with the highest environmental, social and financial benefits.
Following its successful Series A round, the company has just announced that it secured a $6 million investment at a $43 million valuation in a funding round led by Esor Investment and 212, with the participation of TTGV, TKYB, Founder One and other investors.
Techstars, the first investor in 2017, and Atlantic Food Labs, who participated in the previous round, also made follow-on investments in the latest round.
Fazla looks to utilize the investment to speed up its operations and strengthen its presence in the Spanish waste management ecosystem, in addition to expanding research and development (R&D) to increase the range of services it offers.
"We initiated our international expansion in 2023. We established our local team in Spain as of March 2023 and we started our operations actively in the field,” said Olcay Silahlı, co-founder and CEO of Fazla.
“With this investment, we aim to expand our ongoing operations in 68 provinces of Türkiye and continue our expansion in Spain more robustly. With this interim investment round, we will continue to expand the impact and scope of our operations through our seven services, which are all developed by Fazla and are the products of various technologies. We will strengthen our investments in team growth and maintain our unique structure by incorporating experts in the field. We will continue to lead the transformation our world needs," Silahlı said.
Arda Eren, co-founder and chief technology officer (CTO) of Fazla, emphasized the company’s extensive technology network.
“As a deep tech organization, we enhance our impact exponentially with a holistic approach by designing our web, mobile and IoT solutions, which we entirely develop in-house, with a data-oriented 360-degree perspective and a focus on traceability and scalability in waste management,” Eren said.
“With this investment, we will continue our R&D investments to strengthen our developed solutions and expand our product portfolio."
Ali Karabey, co-founder of 212 and an investor in Fazla since 2021, leading the investment in the last two rounds, said the company has pioneered waste management in Türkiye and achieved “remarkable” momentum.
“It is now expanding into the European market, with Spain as its first target country. The success of the team in Spain will be a significant step toward establishing dominance in the European market,” said Karabey.
“We have full confidence that Fazla's experienced and talented team will create a significant impact in the Spanish market."
Şevki Kuyulu, co-founder of Esor Investment, said Fazla's technology reduces waste generation at the source.
“Irreducible waste is recovered with the highest economic, environmental and social benefits. Due to the benefits it provides to the world, we decided to make the first investment of 2023 in Fazla,” Kuyulu said.
“We believe that the waste-related issue we are facing today is crucial for our future, and with measures taken now, a healthier world is possible."
Advertising has turned into a more effective tool during the growth phase of marketplaces.
With its solutions focused on personalized ads and multi-channel customer reach, GoWit provides advertisers with a comprehensive platform, bringing a new dimension to the rapidly developing and changing digital advertising industry worldwide.
A leading global advertising technology brand, GoWit has announced it secured a $1 million investment this week. The funding round included Esas Ventures, Alarko Ventures, APY Ventures and the Mindvest Venture Capital Investment Fund.
The Turkish multichannel advertising platform for marketplaces, which launched the Retail Media Ads (RMA) platform last year, went on to quickly announce new partnerships with local and global marketplaces.
Through the GoWit RMA platform, marketplaces can offer advertising spaces to the brands they collaborate with, enabling them to increase brand awareness, sales and overall advertising conversions through effective audience targeting and various ad formats that can be displayed on different channels.
The latest investment is of great importance for the company to strengthen its pioneering position in the Turkish market and expand globally.
GoWit continues to actively work and collaborate to meet the needs of marketplaces that aim to leverage the evolving customer potential on online platforms and generate revenue from advertising sections in the growing e-commerce ecosystem.
Emrah Adsan, co-founder and CEO of GoWit, said since its establishment, GoWit has focused on “transforming the advertising ecosystem and making it more democratic.”
“After launching our RMA product and signing agreements with well-known companies in our country and worldwide, receiving this investment is crucial for us to accelerate our planned initiatives,” said Adsan.
“Throughout this process, we clearly saw the need for a comprehensive advertising platform and were able to achieve product-market fit. We want to express our gratitude to each of our investors; their belief in our ability to be pioneers in the industry has been a great source of motivation for us."
While striving to raise awareness among marketplaces and brands about the opportunities offered by the Retail Media Ads platform, Adsan said the company also aims to reach more customers internationally.
“This investment will be specifically used to enhance the recognition of our company and expand the reach of our product to more marketplaces. The investment will serve us in various aspects, from product development to marketing strategy," he added.
GoWit plans to open its office in London soon to leverage the current market conditions and benefit from a global perspective, bringing together numerous marketplaces and brands with countless opportunities offered by Retail Media.
MentalUP, the gamified education platform, is one of the contenders chasing growth in the global market in 2023. In 2022, MentalUP gained 5 million new users in 15 different markets and added a new module called "Event Center."
One of Türkiye’s leading technology and communications companies, Türk Telekom continues to be the top choice of families, teachers, and students with its digital education platforms.
MentalUP, in which Türk Telekom is a partner through its corporate venture capital arm TT Ventures, contributed to children learning while having fun by adding new countries to the ones it serves in 2022.
The number of users of the gamified education platform, which strives toward being recognized as one of the most successful education startups, is increasing day by day worldwide, according to Muhammed Özhan, the general manager of TT Ventures.
“MentalUP started serving 5 million new users in 15 different countries' markets, including the United States, Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom in 2022. We are proud to support the efforts of the initiative, which Türk Telekom supported through the PILOT (startup acceleration) program in 2016 and then became a partner with TT Ventures, in making a difference in the field of education," said Özhan.
The co-founder of MentalUP, Emre Özgündüz, stated that their goal is to reach 30 million users by the end of 2023, through growth efforts in different markets and an expansion into African and Central European countries.
Özgündüz says the platform became one of the applications with the highest number of users in its age category in the domestic market in 2022.
“In order to expand our experiences in Türkiye to global markets, we focused on growth efforts in different markets in 2022. In this regard, we reached a total of 15 million users by gaining 5 million new users worldwide,” Özgündüz said.
“Our goal is to reach a total of 30 million users by the end of 2023, including growth in the African and Central European markets."
Türkiye’s first gamified education platform that enhances cognitive skills such as attention and memory in children aged 4-13, MentalUP has introduced a new module called Event Center to its users.
The module offers children an opportunity to participate in up-to-date activities and competitions while improving their mental skills, such as attention and memory, through brain games and fitness exercises.
It features more than 150 gamified brain exercises and over 210 animation-based fitness exercises. Children can have fun and compete with each other while learning through the Event Center, which features current and time-limited activities and contests.
So far, more than 500,000 children have participated in the events held within the Event Center.
MentalUP has gained widespread popularity and recognition, being ranked among the top 10 most downloaded apps in the 6-8 Age Children Category on the App Store in the United States.
In recognition of its efforts to promote technology in the sports field, its “MentalUP Fitness for Kids” project has earned a top 10 ranking in the “BiGG Sports Awards,” which was organized by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye (TÜBITAK) and the Ministry of Youth and Sports.
