Foreign investors eye Turkish start-ups

LONDON

Turkish start-ups, which received $93 million investments last year, draw the attention of foreign investors.

Lastly, on-demand delivery application Getir, which means "Bring" in Turkish, received $38 million investment from a group of foreign investors under the leadership of Sir Michael Moritz, a renown investor in Silicon Valley.
Foreign investors have invested in 15 Turkish start-up firms in 2019, according to a research website startups.watch. They are expected to invest more in Turkish enterprises after Moritz's investment in the country.

Alex Ham, the CEO of the London-based institutional stockbroker and corporate advisor Numis Securities, said: "Getir has been a very good consumer product and that’s why it has been invested in."

Ham added: "Getir’s investor is already quite big in Asia. Moreover, Turkey is very strategically located. Turkey has an impressive start-up scene."

He also stressed that more success stories can further attract the attention of foreign investors.

Numis Securities, which helped to Getir for foreign investment, is currently working with more than three Turkish start-ups for receiving investments, he expressed.

Nazim Salur, the founder of Getir and taxi application BiTaksi, highlighted that investment is not only important for Getir, but also for the Turkish start-up ecosystem.

Turkey is a young and developing economy in comparison to other economies in Europe, and a more attractive country, thanks to its potential, Salur said.

He added: "There are big opportunities for foreign investors in Turkey."

Serkan Unsal, co-founder of startups.watch, said Getir showed that when foreign investors see a good project in Turkey, they feel free to invest in the country.

"Thanks to the investment [in Getir], our total investment in 2019 grew considerably," he noted.

Unal added: "This was an advantage for Turkey in the competition in the east and southeast."

* Writing by Gokhan Ergocun from Istanbul.