Healthcare startups in Türkiye are attracting significant investment, particularly at the seed stage. Beyond the Scientific and Technological Research Institution of Türkiye's (TÜBITAK) BiGG program, Türk Telekom Ventures is also key player in backing innovative ventures.
On a global scale, investment in healthcare startups is projected to exceed $7 billion by the end of 2024, according to industry estimates.
Total investments in digital health startups worldwide were approximately $18 billion in 2023, according to CB Insights. Although that marked a decrease compared to 2021 and 2022, the sector remains a focal point for global investors.
Projections for 2024 indicate continued interest, with artificial intelligence-backed health startups expected to grow by 15%-20%. Investments in telehealth services are projected to surpass $7 billion by the end of 2024.
In Türkiye, healthcare startups received $20 million–$25 million in investments in 2023, according to industry monitor startups.watch data. Though modest compared to global levels, the diversity of the startups is noteworthy.
Startups.watch reports that 30% of Türkiye's healthcare initiatives focus on AI and data analytics, emphasizing their innovative edge.
Health startups also constitute an important segment mong TÜBITAK BiGG investments.
Türk Telekom's corporate venture capital company, TT Ventures, plays a pivotal role through its corporate venture capital efforts and a startup accelerator program. These initiatives support scalable, sustainable, and innovative healthcare solutions.
For over a decade, Türk Telekom has played a leading role in the growth of innovative startups through its Pilot acceleration program.
Türk Telekom Ventures and TT Ventures VCIF invest in startups focusing on future technologies and support their growth in the global market through international collaborations.
Türk Telekom Ventures aims to strengthen the entrepreneurial ecosystem and has made significant contributions to various startups in fields ranging from health to education, productive AI solutions, image processing and big data solutions.
Among the TT Ventures VCIF investments are Virasoft and Albert Health. Graduates of TT Ventures' Pilot, Aivisiontech and Hevi AI contribute to digital transformation in health with AI-supported solutions for early diagnosis, chronic disease monitoring and preventive health approaches, while Kidolog provides online expert support in family technologies.
Muhammed Özhan, general manager of TT Ventures, says Türk Telekom is one of the companies investing the most in technology in Türkiye and focuses on startups that will strengthen the entrepreneurial ecosystem while leading the digitalization of many sectors.
"We contribute to developing the entrepreneurship and innovation culture through acceleration programs and investment opportunities we offer startups. We know that developing technologies make a significant difference in health as in every aspect of life," said Özhan.
"By centering our work around people and the value we can offer, we contribute to digitalization in many fields, including health. We will continue to lead the spread of digital solutions that aim to improve human life and support the global expansion of startups."
Aivisiontech, a technology company developing innovative AI solutions in sports and health, offers a system that analyzes thermal images of athletes before and after training to evaluate muscle fatigue and injury risk within 15 seconds.
Solutions provided to sports teams offer AI-based support to technical teams, while affordable solutions developed for public hospitals facilitate patient evaluation processes.
Graduating from the TT Ventures' Pilot program in 2020, Hevi AI offers AI-based solutions to the health sector.
Its product portfolio includes AI-supported solutions that speed up diagnostic processes for critical health problems and increase diagnostic accuracy, providing easy adaptation in global markets.
Hevi AI operates in Azerbaijan, Ukraine, and Bulgaria and aims to enter the Qatari market by 2025. By making its products accessible to public health, Hevi AI contributes to the digitalization of the health sector in Türkiye.
Virasoft focuses on improving cancer diagnosis and treatment with AI-supported decision-support algorithms, workflow solutions, and telepathology platforms.
Supporting the workflow and decision-making processes of pathologists in over 20 institutions with 400,000 cases annually, the company is taking steps towards global expansion with its headquarters in New York and research and development (R&D) team in Istanbul.
The company continues demo processes in countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, Georgia, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
Kidolog, a family technology company providing online support to parents in various areas with a multidisciplinary approach, offers 24/7 online support from verified and professional experts in 10 different categories.
Kidolog, with systems approved by the Ministry of Health and integrations with e-Government, e-Pulse and e-Prescription, has provided services to families in over 35 countries.
As a voice health assistant helping chronic patients manage their treatment, Albert Health is known as Türkiye's "first" voice health assistant.
It reminds users to take their regular medications and records blood pressure, sugar and pulse values, making health measurements easier to track.
The system, which can be used by people of all ages, allows patients to record all their health measurements with voice commands and share them with their doctors or relatives.
Financial technology startups, or fintechs, are rapidly growing, driven by recent regulatory decisions and are introducing consumers to numerous new applications in payment systems.
Founded in 2020 and focused on next-generation payment technologies, Sipay has made significant strides.
Its CEO, Semih Muşabak, announced that the company's virtual POS system has reached a volume of TL 25 billion, positioning Sipay on its way to becoming a super app.
Muşabak also expressed the goal of facilitating TL 200 billion in payments.
"Our flagship 'Payment Acceptance Systems' vertical continues to serve with both Physical and Virtual POS. We have achieved a volume of TL 25 billion in the virtual POS segment. We have developed gold trading and credit lending services. Through the Sipay application, users can load and withdraw money, create prepaid cards, transfer money and view balances in other banks," he noted.
"Additionally, we are part of the FAST system and can create iBans for users, allowing them to perform money loading and transfer operations with their iBan. Users can make payments at any point with a QR Code. Furthermore, we recently introduced a first in Türkiye: users can now access the Findeks Credit Score Risk Report, developed by the Credit Registration Bureau (KKB), with a single click through the Sipay application."
The latest vertical is "Sipay As A Service," through which the company provides infrastructure to unlicensed organizations with its WalletGate and CardGate products, contributing to their fintech transformation, said Muşabak.
"We design the infrastructure of our Digital Wallet and Prepaid Card products for individual users to be used by businesses under their own brands. CardGate is another innovative solution targeting fintech entrepreneurs," he noted.
By offering Sipay's own infrastructure, he said this service helps fintech companies save time and costs, allowing them to launch their financial technology products quickly and efficiently.
"Although 'Payment Acceptance Systems' remains our flagship vertical, we have also achieved significant momentum in our other two verticals," he added.
Today, the company provides infrastructure for 15,000 member businesses and over 4 million individual users.
"We are confidently progressing toward becoming a 'financial super app' that offers all financial solutions for businesses and individuals from a single point," said Muşabak.
Sipay recently secured a $15 million investment in a round led by Anfa VC, a global investment company known for its long-term investments and collaboration contributions to entrepreneurs.
"Our investment round attracted significant interest from leading figures in the financial technology sector, including Jitendra Gupta from Citrus Pay and Jupiter, Amrish Rau from Pine Labs, Kunal Shah from CRED, Ravish Naresh from Khatabook and Edward Lando from Pareto Holdings, along with many experienced investors," Muşabak noted.
Sipay plans to utilize the investment to expand its product range, develop innovative solutions, enter new markets and further strengthen its global presence.
"With this financing, we will accelerate our efforts in artificial intelligence, hyper-personalization, embedded finance, blockchain and virtual reality while also expanding into new markets," Muşabak said.
He underscored that the company aims to extend its success in Türkiye to international markets and achieve rapid growth globally.
"Our efforts in Europe, particularly in the United Kingdom, have begun. We aim to complete the POC (Proof of Concept) studies for our products by the end of the year. One of our main agendas for next year is to expand our efforts in the European market, especially in the U.K.," said Muşabak.
"Our goal for the end of this year is to facilitate TL 200 billion in payments and increase our revenue approximately 3.5 times. Our long-term goal is to become the first financial institution to go public abroad," he added.
"We aim to reach a billion dollars in revenue within two years and become the first fintech company to go public internationally."
Vinter, an AI-based next-generation recruitment platform that creates a streamlined and transparent process between candidates and recruitment specialists, has secured 1.4 million euros in seed funding from Dutch firm ALCORA B.V.
By increasing the use of AI technologies in recruitment processes, Vinter can provide businesses with recruitment processes that are nine times faster and 80% more cost-effective.
Founded in London in 2023, with a research and development (R&D) center in Türkiye, Vinter ensures faster, more objective, and efficient candidate evaluations.
Vinter, favored by leading companies in the industry, evaluates and scores candidates based on their responses to questions and suitability for the position. The advanced AI analyzes candidates' competencies in detail, aiming to be the greatest support for recruiters by providing insights into their decisions.
"With Vinter, we conduct a more streamlined and transparent process between candidates and recruitment teams. We offer a flexible infrastructure for recruiters to create their own processes, enabling a data-driven decision-making process," said Erdem Can, co-founder of Vinter.
"Vinter's asynchronous process allows candidates and recruitment specialists to manage the process according to their own schedules without the need for meetings or appointments. The system keeps both candidates and recruiters informed of the process progress with status updates," he noted.
Erkan Yeniçare, chair of the board at Vinter, said the company aims to utilize the investment "to provide businesses worldwide with faster, more efficient, and cost-effective recruitment processes through our AI-supported recruitment platform."
"We aim to establish a leading position in Türkiye and the global market and to expand the principles of transparency, objectivity, and speed in the recruitment world to a broader user base," Yeniçare added.
Vinter's features include a flexible structure that allows customization of the recruitment process, question set management, technical proficiency, competency inventory, foreign language proficiency, dashboards with advanced analytics, integrations and AI-supported candidate evaluations.
