Mary Superlano
Turkish tech companies cementing global growth
It’s probably true that individuals, considered to have been successful against the odds, are often considered heroes. Resilience, tenacity and passion are all adjectives that sit uppermost in the mind when thinking of the Turkish tech hub.
This perception should be similar when it comes to organizational scale-up and company success. Those companies that come from locations unknown or unchampioned, those that go on to push beyond previously accepted norms should be afforded similar hero status.
Turkey’s tech hub is a fast-growing global ecosystem that builds these characteristics into companies as standard. An area that’s always been brimming with great talent, but talent that has typically needed to emigrate in order to find careers in ambitious tech companies. Nowadays Turkish tech hub is in evolution and is fast evolving as a creator of high-impact creative technology companies capable of enriching the global technology landscape.
Investing in scale-ups in Turkey is becoming more attractive because of the nation’s growing pool of world-class talent and large market, where business models and products can be vigorously battle-tested for global expansion
Seçkin Tabak is Director of prominent Turkish growth equity investor Esas
Despite long overdue global recognition and attention, founders, talented tech workers, VCs and investors in the local ecosystem are currently creating a thriving community from which numerous companies are flourishing.
From a growth perspective, Turkey has never been in a better situation than it is in today. In the last decade, there has been major transformation across the nation. OPLOG itself is an example of the growing confidence that investors have in the ecosystem. In late September, we raised €11 million from Turkey’s leading private equity firm Esas to expand our tech enabled fulfillment service. As momentum increases, I have no doubt that Turkey will continue to gain significant respect and investment.
Halit Develioglu CEO of Turkish startup OPLOG
Turkey’s tech hub from slow growth to explosion.
The proof is in the data, in the first quarter of 2022 Turkish startups raised an impressive $1.2 Billion from investors, which is equitable with the total investment secured in 2021.
Some of the Turkish tech highlights from 2022 include;
- Insider became Turkey’s 6th unicorn after it broke the billion-dollar valuation with a $121 Series D round this year.
- Dream Games raised a significant $255M Series C round valuing the company at $2.75B
- Getir secured $768M in a Series D in the process making it Europe’s first delivery decacorn.
- Outside of these mega-rounds, at least 10 other scale-ups secured funding rounds of $10m+. Including Oplog, Appsilon Enterprise and Spyke Games who alone secured an investment of $55m in January.
- Turkey now boasts 6 unicorns: Insider, Getir, Dream Games, Hepsiburada, Trendyol and Peak Games. Demonstrating impressive diversity ranging from gaming, delivery and e-commerce.
A deep wealth of talent
Turkey graduates about 1 million new professionals every year. Not only that its population is young, 38% is under 25, a rare instance for a European country. More specifically, around 100K of those graduates belong to STEM fields.
These are talent gold mines for tech companies, but until recently there has been a lack of opportunity for them to create a career at home.
This new combination of innovation and investment is therefore a driving force for invested founders and their direct teams. Plus, the huge Turkish talent base is now able to evolve their career working for ambitious high-growth businesses.
Global Expansion
The evolution of the Turkish tech ecosystem also means that these companies really focus on global leadership in their individual market sectors. This means scale-ups are now taking on the world and helping secure talent and revenue growth all over the world.
It’s not always the case that all Turkish scale-ups want to build their proposition at home either. Diamond tech company Appsilon Enterprise, although founded in Turkey with a local team, has relocated their HQ to the Netherlands with the ambition to compete in growing markets.
CEO Taylan Erol explains how Turkish talent was essential and what made the move the right choice for them.
At Appsilon there is minimal turnover, the core team is set and it is the team we built in the middle of 2020 with only two people who have left the company. The age average in the company is 31. So, we are a very young company.
We have always been interested in cutting-edge applications of diamonds […] qantum computing is one. There are some clusters that are deeply invested in quantom computing with the US as the leaders, on the other hand the Netherlands wants to catch. [with the move] We will now be part of that [quantum computing] cluster as well.
Taylan Erol CEO Appsilon
There is no doubt however that this national and local growth is advantageous to everybody. Even Turkish people working around the Tech scale up sector are proud of their country’s recent recognition;
Unwavering entrepreneurial spirit
What made Turkey change and expand so quickly in the last decade? To put it simply, it’s people. The talented and committed founders, engineers and teams behind these Turkish companies are the driving force behind this dream come true scenario in innovation.
These are the Turkish companies helping to evolve the country’s economy and harness international growth. It will Simultaneously cement its future entrepreneurialism as the experiences being developed now will undoubtedly lead to more growth. Kudos to these growth company heroes!
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