KPMG Turkey released its ‘Turkey Start-up Investments Report’, prepared in cooperation with 212. Investments start-ups received in 2020 broke a record in Turkey’s start-up ecosystem with USD 143 m transaction volume, increasing by 35%, according to the report. When the share sales of startups are included, the total transaction volume in 2020 reaches USD 2.3 bn.
Evaluating the performance of the start-up ecosystem in 2020, the report reveals that the interest in digital platforms rising after the pandemic continues. Turkey has witnessed the highest investments in the history of the ecosystem. Gaming start-ups have taken the lion’s share in 2020, when the investments and share sales were taken into consideration.
Gokhan Kacmaz, KPMG Turkey Mergers and Acquisitions Consulting Leader, said the investments by venture capitals and angel investors for 155 start-ups at this level have never been seen before. Scale-up VC investments have reached USD 42 m in 2020, he noted. The investment level was USD 7 m in 2019 and USD 15 m in 2018. “This tell us that the ecosystem has reached a certain maturity, and it continues to give hope to all stakeholders who touch the ecosystem,” said Kacmaz adding that Turkish start-ups get their scale-up investments from global players while most of the domestic investors deal with earl stage initiatives.
Getir received the biggest investment
On-demand delivery service Getir attracted a total USD 38 m investment, USD 25 m of which was from Silicon Valley investor Michael Moritz, in the investment tour it completed in January 2020.
Insider, one of the portfolio companies of 212, came to the fore with total USD 32 m investment it received from Sequoia Capital, Riverwood Capital, Endeavor Catalyst and Wamda Capital in 2020. It also formed the majority of the total investment amount in the SaaS (Software as a Service) sector.
Gaming gets the lion’s share
The main verticals that attracted the most investments in 2020 were gaming, retailtech (retail technologies) and fintech, while the verticals with the most transactions were SaaS, fintech and healthtech (health technologies) in terms of number of transactions. However, gaming start-ups got the lion’s share in both 2019 and 2020, among the newly established start-ups.
