Record investments in startups…

KPMG Turkey announced the third “Turkey Startup Investments Report” in cooperation with 212. According to the report, which reveals the performance of the startup ecosystem in the first quarter of the year, the Turkish startup ecosystem reached the highest investment amount of all time, reaching more than 3.5 times the total investment amount in 2020, with 60 transactions with an investment volume of 508.5 million in this quarter. KPMG Turkey Mergers and Acquisitions Consultancy Leader Gökhan Kaçmaz said that: “The Turkish investment and startup ecosystem had witnessed the highest investment activity in its history last year. New records were broken with the transactions in the first three months of 2021. Investments in the first quarter show that the startup ecosystem will continue to grow. Although the beginner level transactions constitute the majority on the basis of the number of transactions, the total investment of 300 million USD received by Getir in the last round is important in terms of confirming the interest in Turkish enterprises in the late period VC investments.” The founding partner of 212 Ali Karabey stated that: “The total investment received by 60 enterprises in the first quarter has reached 509 million USD by breaking the record for the last 10 years, by increasing approximately 3.5 times the investment received in 2020. Getir has become the second unicorn in Turkey.” Important movements in the first quarter are stated as:

• Getir raised 128 million USD in Series B tour led by Cranckstart Foundation in January 2021 and 300 million USD in Series C led by world-renowned Sequoia Capital and Tiger Global Management in March 2021. These two transactions, totaling 428 million USD, accounted for 84% of startup investments in Turkey. Reaching a valuation of 2.6 billion USD, Getir became a unicorn and the most invested Turkish company
• In the first quarter of 2021, the sectors that attract the most investments are delivery and logistics, while the verticals with the most transactions are gaming, fintech, media and SaaS.
• 3 out of 10 transactions that took place in the first quarter were made in the gaming industry. Dream Games collected 50 million USD in Series A investment from UK and USA based institutional investors in February 2021.
• Although there are no big stand-outs in the acquisition, 4 out of the top 10 transactions by transaction volume were on the purchasing side. The biggest acquisition this quarter was the acquisition of 35.09% of media company BluTV by Discovery Communications Europe for 20 million USD.
• Turkey ranked 10th in Europe and 2nd in the MENA region in terms of transaction volume. In addition, İstanbul ranked 7th among European cities in terms of transaction volume.
• Beginner level transactions dominated the ecosystem with 54 transactions in the first quarter of 2021. On the other hand, late period VC transactions ranked first in the ranking of transaction volume with the effect of the Getir transaction.

StartupCentrum also evaluated the first quarter

The global startup community StartupCentrum also evaluated the investments made in the Turkish entrepreneurship ecosystem. According to the “2021-1th Quarter Turkey Startup Ecosystem Investment Report”, in the first quarter of the Turkish startup ecosystem, 62 startups invested 520 million USD in 63 investment rounds. While the number of investments increased by 26% compared to the last quarter, there was an 18-fold increase in investment amount compared to the last quarter. The amount of investment made in the first quarter of 2021 has tripled the total investment amount made in the whole of 2020. Investments received by Getir have a great impact on this rise. According to the report, 77% of the enterprises that receive investment are based in Istanbul and 14% are based in Ankara. StartupCentrum predicts that 2021 will close with an investment of 1-1.5 billion USD.

According to the report, the sector that received the most investments was gaming with 15 investments, followed by Fintech startups with 7 investments. In terms of the number of investments, the Delivery sector was the sector that received the most investments with the Getir impact, followed by the Gaming, SVOD (Subscription Video on Demand) and CRM & Sales sectors. Investment stages and investment tours, as well as investors, are also discussed in detail in the report. According to the report, 154 investors participated in 63 investment rounds. 84% of these investors were from Turkey and 16% were from abroad. The report also includes details on how many of the investors are individual investors, VCs, angel investment networks, companies and accelerators

In the first quarter of 2021, the number of exits of enterprises seems slightly lower than in previous years. 6 startups exited in the first quarter, and 5 of the 6 companies that bought these ventures are from abroad. The report also includes initiatives whose founders are Turkish, but that do not have operations in Turkey and continue to grow abroad. Under this title, 9 startups received a total investment of 347 million USD. When it is added to the ecosystem with 520 million USD, it is seen that the startups with Turkish founders received a total of 867 million USD of investment.