Investors and entrepreneurs who arrive in Istanbul aren’t just targeting the local market – the current political climate means that Turkish startups tend to have one foot in the country and one elsewhere. “It’s forced companies to think globally,” says Enis Hulli of 500 Startups, a venture fund with an outpost in the Turkish capital.
Istanbul is still maturing as a European startup hub. It’s largest venture capital fund, 212 Capital Partners, was founded in 2010; Galata Business Angels, one of its biggest angel investors, arrived in 2011. Last year, more than £130 million was invested in Turkish startups through private equity and personal investments and local players remain optimistic. “We’re growing significantly,” says Kaan Akin, founder of Hackquarters, an Istanbul accelerator. “Big companies have venture funds, and the Turkish Science Foundation is investing big in startups.”
Insider
Insider’s clients, including Toyota and UNIQLO, pay for access to a growth management platform, which helps acquire and retain customers through automated personalised marketing. The company provides tailored content on websites, adverts and emails from nearly 100 individual parameters. In April, venture capital firm Sequoia Capital invested £8.2 million, making Insider their first Turkish investment. Insider’s CEO Hande Cilingir is now focused on expanding its business in the Far East – though it keeps much of its tech team in Turkey. They have more than 100 staff in their Istanbul office – one of more than a dozen around the world. useinsider.com
Whole Surplus
German supermarket chain METRO and seed accelerator Techstars are just two of the companies to invest £450,000 in Whole Surplus, a food waste management solution connecting retailers with food banks. The startup, founded in 2016 by Olcay Silahlı is working with 14 large retailers across Turkey, transporting unsold food to those who need it most through 100 non-governmental organisations. As well as expanding into Germany and Romania - with pilots brokered through METRO - the company is also moving on from tackling food waste to recycling: it sells on fruit and dairy from supermarkets to companies like Coca-Cola and Unilelver who can repurpose them into other products, such as animal feed. wholesurplus.com
Teleporter
eSports continues to grow at an impressive pace as a spectator sport, with Juniper Research forecasting 850 million people – a tenth of the world’s population – will watch games content by 2022. Founded by Aslan Yerdelen and Dilara Kececi in 2016, Teleporter uses virtual and augmented reality to make eSports events more interactive. Their app can be installed in VR headsets, providing players with a data dashboard about a player’s performance in real time. Teleporter places viewers in a VR arena where they can watch eSport matches alongside other virtual spectators. The company, which entered public beta in June, has raised £200,000 to date, from investors including telecommunications firm Türk Telecom and venture capital fund 212 Capital Partners. teleporter.tv
WHERE TO PLAY: Kadıköy Moda is teeming with pubs, so you’ll always find somewhere to catch up and dance the night away: among the many worth visiting are Ayı and Zeplin.
WHERE TO EAT: Mikla, the brainchild of top chef Mehmet Gürs, serves up the best fusion food in Istanbul. Its rooftop location at the Marmara Pera hotel overlooks the sea and the Hagia Sophia.
BiSU
In Turkey, most tap water isn’t drinkable. Organised water delivery services have dominated the market for decades, but they deliver on their terms, at a time of their choosing. On-demand delivery services such as BiSU have disrupted the water business in Turkey. Tap the button in the app and water – from a number of brands –is sent to your house when you want. Ozan Alptekin and Ergin Uner launched the company in 2015 and have now expanded it to a dozen cities, taking over 100,000 orders a month from 38,000 users. They have raised £525,000 from 500 Startups, Sankonline and private investors. “With that distribution channel, you could sell groceries, food and house products,” says 500 Startups’ Hulli. “That leverage point they found through water is really important.” bisu.com.tr
Spirohome
Three people a day die from asthma, with more than 330 million people worldwide believed to suffer from the condition. Spirohome’s Bluetooth-enabled smart spirometer pushes data on lung capacity it collects from a spirometer and inhaler use (thanks to a smart attachment that monitors the number of times the inhaler is used) to your doctor. The firm, founded by Merthan Öztürk and Kerem Yaşar, has raised £1.13 million funding from local investors including ACT Venture Capital and 500 Startups. spirohome.io
Iyzico
Barbaros Özbuğutu and Tahsin Isın’s startup, which has raised £17.8 million since its founding in 2012, provides a simple checkout and payment system for more than 300,000 online vendors, taking a commission on each transaction. As well as a major foothold in the Turkish market, Iyzico is also used by some big multinationals, including Zara and Samsung. The company offers everything from a simple virtual checkout, IyziPos, to a system that can deal with multiple shopfronts, called IyziBazaar. The system integrates into other e-commerce payment software, and earlier this year struck a deal with payment processing firm Worldpay to bring the latter’s tech to Turkey. iyzico.com
App Samurai
Competition in the app market can be cut-throat, with minute changes making the difference between chart-toppers and those that languish uninstalled on phones. App Samurai, a mobile advertising tool, helps developers promote their apps. Users (including Nike and Zalora) create advertising campaigns to acquire customers, boost interest in their app, or promote themselves using video. Founded in November 2015 by Emre Fadıllıoğlu, Seyhmus Ölker and Soner Sensoy, the company, which has customers in more than 70 countries and offices in San Francisco and Berlin as well as Istanbul, has attracted £1.6 million from Techstars and ACT Venture Partners. appsamurai.com
Zeplin
Zeplin’s founders, Pelin Kenez, Berk Çebi, Merih Akar and Ismail Ceylan, created the app when they were Airbnb, Slack, Dropbox and Pinterest all use Zeplin collaborative app to design their apps. “We help designers and engineers work more efficiently by creating a common language,” explains Kenez. The company has raised £1 million from around ten investors including Mike Maples, who has also backed Twitter and Lyft. Zeplin, a Y-Combinator alum, now has 1.5 million registered customers using it to make the process of developing apps a collaborative process – which is the original inspiration for creating the startup back in 2014. zeplin.io
Sinemia
With its recent expansion into Canada, the UK and Australia funded by £1.6 million of investment from 500 Startups and Revo Capital, Turkey’s cinema subscription service Sinemia is trying to take on the stars of big screen entertainment such as Movie Pass. The Istanbul service, founded by Rifat Oğuz in 2015, already has more than 100,000 customers in Turkey and the United States, who pay $4.99 a month to see a screening of any film at any cinema – including the latest releases. The offer has resulted in 50 per cent month-on-month growth for the past year. sinemia.com
Getir
Entrepreneur Nazim Salur has a strong pedigree in setting up startups: his BiTaksi, which would call taxis for users within three minutes, transformed the way Turks travelled. His next project, Getir, is an on-demand delivery startup. The Turkish equivalent of the United States’ Postmates, Getir manages to fulfil customer orders for pretty much anything – from chocolate bars to bottles of water – from order to delivery within ten minutes. The service has delivered £16.5 million-worth of products since being launched in 2015. The firm has a fleet of 200 cars and 400 motorcycles, covering almost all of Istanbul from more than 60 different distribution centres. getir.com
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
