Companies in Türkiye that don't struggle to find investment at the seed stage often face their biggest challenge during the growth phase. For some time now, venture capital investment funds (VCIF) have been striving to fill this gap.
Funds specifically targeting ventures seeking investment in Series A and B rounds were abundant. However, as many institutions gained experience in the venture ecosystem, alternatives for growth financing have proliferated.
Ihsan Elgin, a board member of Finberg, a corporate venture capital firm and Fibabanka subsidiary, stated that as needs evolve at advanced stages, accessing capital becomes more challenging.
Elgin highlighted their new projects addressing the most felt deficiency in Türkiye, namely growth funds.
"We are launching a new fund this April. We are establishing a fund ranging from a minimum of $1 million to a maximum of $5 million. If the need exceeds $5 million, we will also begin offering these funds to ventures seeking to grow with special instruments,” he noted.
He said it is more difficult for ventures seeking to grow to find investment financing in a high-inflation environment.
“For example, we are covering the growth financing of Avane, which wants to expand its shared kitchens. Similarly, we are preparing special financial instruments to support the growth of EasyCep to meet the increasing demand for refurbished phones in the market," said Elgin.
Elgin emphasized that they don't solely invest in financial technology, stressing their engagements over the last five years.
"In 2018, we established Finberg as a fund management company. We manage four separate venture capital funds. We have core capital, national venture capital solely for Finberg, and now we are launching funds and new instruments targeting ventures seeking to grow. We started with financial technology ventures. Currently, 26% of our investments are in fintech, 26% in retail technology and the rest are evaluated as various opportunity investments,” he noted.
Elgin said they have also established the structure of the fund of funds and have invested in 11 ventures from nearby and distant geographies.
“We have invested in different ventures at early and late stages. We are also investing with these investors in Türkiye. At this point, 30% of our investments are abroad and 70% are in Türkiye," Elgin added.
Finberg has made investments in 49 startups and 11 venture capital funds over seven years. In this context, out of 60 investments totaling $72 million, it achieved six exit deals amounting to $42 million.
Elgin describes the characteristics entrepreneurs must possess, saying they must have clear competitive advantages in markets with high entry barriers.
He also said they should have a proven business model and mastery over economies of scale. He stresses the high potential for growth overseas as essential and notes having a strong network of corporate investors provides an advantage.
Experienced investment funds are increasing both indirect and direct investments, and funding sources for ventures in Türkiye are diversifying.
One of these, Inveo Investment Holding, with investments in capital markets, banking, and technology entrepreneurship increased its financial investments by 17% year-over-year to TL 7.52 billion ($232 million) in 2023, as per its financial results for the year.
Financial investments recorded a net increase of TL 3.3 billion annually, with a growth rate of 49%. The company's net profit for the year 2023 came in at TL 1.1 billion. The market value of the holding, whose shares have been traded on Borsa Istanbul Stock Exchange (BIST) for over 25 years, reached TL 10.02 billion by the end of 2023, showing a 35% increase compared to the end of the previous year.
Continuously expanding its ecosystem with diversified investments and pioneering ventures, Inveo Investment Holding hosts 151 investments, comprising 16 direct and 135 indirect investments.
In 2023, the ecosystem welcomed 19 new investments. With an investment strategy of "right time, right value," the holding reached a total investment of $117.2 million by the end of 2023, realizing exit deals worth $32.8 million.
Focusing on Türkiye’s emerging, innovative, and next-generation technologies, Inveo Ventures, since its establishment in April 2022, has invested over $2 million in 14 different ventures through three different structures consisting of venture capital investment partnerships and funds.
Onur Topaç, CEO of Inveo Investment Holding, stated that they had demonstrated a very successful performance in 2023.
“With the contributions our investments make each year, which we have established and developed with intensive effort in recent years with our team, we maintain our healthy and sustainable financial structure as a holding. In the Inveo ecosystem, we strengthen our financial position with the ability to create value for all stakeholders and successful investment management,” said Topaç.
“Together with our subsidiaries, affiliates, and funds we invest in, we have provided employment opportunities for over 2,000 people by the end of 2023 in our direct/indirect investments totaling 151."
Cybersecurity attacks pose a threat to every institution, prompting many to take measures against security vulnerabilities.
Working to establish a robust cyber defense at global standards with indigenous and national solutions, Türk Telekom has prioritized Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) protection among its efforts in data security, threat management, and application security in recent years.
Collaborating with Labris Network, a research and development-focused network security solutions manufacturer, one of Türkiye’s leading telecommunications and technology companies has launched its domestic DDoS service.
Providing services round the clock with its expert team certified to global standards at Türkiye’s largest cybersecurity center, Türk Telekom continues to invest with the vision of protecting the national data.
Zeynep Özden, deputy general manager of Marketing and Customer Experience at Türk Telekom, emphasized the company's comprehensive approach.
“As Türkiye’s leading information and communication technologies company, we serve a wide range of consumers and sectors, from official institutions to civil organizations. We view Türkiye as our potential customer entirely. We have created a customer-centric marketing universe with end-to-end solutions in every field,” said Özden.
“In the field of cybersecurity, we diversify our products and services based on the feedback we receive from this ecosystem we have created. We enrich our products and services with the contributions of R&D teams consisting of Turkish engineers and products developed by domestic cybersecurity companies. We offer end-to-end cybersecurity services for all sectors, from automotive to finance, e-commerce to health care,” she added.
Continuing efforts to elevate Türkiye’s cybersecurity level, Özden highlighted that they offer their enriched product portfolio with domestic solutions and expert-certified cybersecurity engineers at the company’s cybersecurity center.
“As the first operator in the position of a cybersecurity service provider, we have been offering manageable security services to our corporate customers for over 10 years. With over 3,000 customers today, we are the largest cybersecurity operator in Türkiye. We provide 24/7 proactive services compliant with both Turkish and global standards. We will continue to increase solutions that strengthen the cybersecurity ecosystem, which we see as our national responsibility,” she noted.
With a vision of collaboration with local manufacturers alongside producing indigenous products, Türk Telekom continues its activities uninterrupted. Focusing on the phishing attacks among the top five attack trends in 2023 within the scope of efforts to produce local cybersecurity products, Türk Telekom created the "Altay Phishing Simulation" platform to increase organizations' maturity against these attacks.
The company offers an end-to-end solution by measuring the cybersecurity maturity of corporate employees with standard and organization-specific templates and assigning relevant training. Additionally, by conducting DDoS attack simulations through more than 300 “bots” from network to application levels, Türk Telekom reveals organizations' DDoS maturity matrix. The company continues its efforts to both develop specific products and increase field penetration for products at certain levels of maturity within the scope of local collaborations.
Supporting the domestic ecosystem with companies in the "Cyber Clustering" established under the Presidency's Digital Transformation Office, Türk Telekom, in collaboration with Labris, the developer of Türkiye’s first commercial national security firewall, has launched its domestic DDoS service.
Aimed at preventing attacks that disrupt online services and cause damage in the digital realm, the domestic DDoS service ensures the continuity of corporate networks and online services against advanced and complex DDoS attacks, entrusting the security of over 5,000 critical infrastructures of its customers to national technologies.
With the investments in indigenous solutions, the company says it will continue to introduce new security products and services to its customers at Türkiye’s largest cybersecurity center simultaneously with the world.
Linktera Robotics, a U.S.-based company specializing in robotic process automation (RPA), has entered into a partnership agreement with the global chatbot leader, Druid.
Through the strategic move, Linktera Robotics aims to accelerate artificial intelligence-supported digital transformation by enabling the use of intelligent chatbot technologies such as ChatGPT integration in Türkiye.
Operating under the umbrella of Linktera Information Technologies, Linktera Robotics stands out with end-to-end digital transformation services in sectors like finance and banking.
Onur Kardeş, CEO of Linktera Robotics, emphasized that their collaborations have expanded the company's scope.
"With this agreement, which is a first in Türkiye, we are taking a vital step to meet the needs of many sectors, especially finance, in the digital transformation process. We leverage the latest technologies to integrate our solutions according to our customers' demands. Through these agreements, we will continue to expand our solution portfolio to contribute to companies' operational efficiency and customer experience improvement," said Kardeş.
He highlighted the enhancement of the digital transformation process through the partnership with Druid.
"Digital transformation has emerged as a process that all companies must rapidly adapt to. Companies require integrated automation systems to adapt to evolving and changing new technologies. To meet this need, we have united with Druid, one of the most productive players in the world of chatbot companies," Kardeş added.
Linktera Robotics aims to strengthen its collaboration with Druid in the coming years to encompass different regions. Strengthening its position in the field of artificial intelligence applications, the company plans to increase its solutions that add value to digital transformation and expand its domestic and international activities.
