The Turkish entrepreneurial system has managed to raise a total of $587 million in investment through 235 deals in seed, early and later venture capital stages in the first half of the year, according to industry data.

Of that, 53 deals came in the second quarter, bringing in $476 million, the startups.watch data, announced during an event this week, showed. Excluding the deal by the rapid delivery pioneer Getir, $337 million was invested in the first six months.

Compared to the pre-pandemic period, the deal size in the first half of 2024 was 417% higher than in the whole of 2019, even without the Getir deal, which brought in $250 million.

The Scientific and Technological Research Institution of Türkiye's (TÜBITAK) BiGG Fund, formerly a grant and now a pre-seed fund, once again proved its major role in the ecosystem.

The fund alone financed 136 of 142 seed investments made from January through June, according to startups.watch data.

In the later stages, ongoing investments helped financial technology startups set new records. These demonstrate the substantial impact of TÜBITAK and fintech startups on the ecosystem.

TÜBITAK BiGG Fund supports startups in fields such as biotechnology, health technology and electronics. The fund helped Türkiye rank second in Europe in seed investments in the first half of 2024.

The total investment during the first six months highlights the dynamism of the startup ecosystem. TÜBITAK BiGG Fund provides crucial support, especially to startups in the seed stage.

Fintech impact

The fintech startups have managed to attract a record-breaking amount of investments. Building on the momentum it has gained, the financial technology sector continues to grow by attracting large capital and making international acquisitions.

In the first half of 2024, companies like Colendi, Dgpays, Midas and Sipay received investments exceeding $15 million.

These large-scale investments took the overall capital that the fintech startups raised from January through June to record $181.5 million across 13 deals, as the sector continues to grow through both local and international acquisitions.

For instance, Papara acquired Pakistan-based SadaPay and iyzico acquired Paynet. This growth positions the fintech sector as a key player in Türkiye's startup ecosystem.

In the first half, female entrepreneurs were involved in 66 of the 235 investments, reaching the highest rate of the past five years at 28% and demonstrating growing support for female entrepreneurs.

Seed-funded startups

In Türkiye, only 3.4% of startups securing seed investments manage to secure Series A funding. This rate stands at 15.8% in the United Kingdom and 21% in Germany.

Out of the 235 investments made in the first half, only 12 involved foreign investors, indicating low international interest.

The number of crowdfunding campaigns continued to decline in the second quarter. Besides economic factors, the lack of proper investments, absence of successful returns and poor reputation management are also thought to contribute to this decline. This shows that alternative financing methods are not being utilized effectively.

Spyke Games investment

Colendi, Dgpays, Midas, and Sipay each received investments exceeding $15 million, pushing fintech investments to an all-time high.

The data showed that artificial intelligence (AI) was the vertical with the highest number of investments in the first half of 2024.

Türkiye ranked second in Europe in terms of the amount and number of gaming investments, coming in just behind the United Kingdom.

Spyke Games became the second most invested game startup in Europe in the first half of 2024 as it managed to raise $50 million.

The number of venture capital investment funds (VCIF) authorized for establishment reached 380, with 15 of them not active. More than half of these funds were established after 2022.

As of the end of the first half of 2024, there are 85 active corporate venture capital funds (CVCs) in Türkiye.