Emerging venture markets (EVMs) are gaining momentum as startup ecosystems. The EVMs continue to receive traction from investments and this is evident as seen with Turkish startups who have seen continued growth over the years even as more capital was invested in fewer startup deals in first-half of 2020.

More venture capital inflows but in fewer deals were witnessed in first half of 2020 as investment touched $80 million invested in Turkey-based startups, already 80 per cent of total 2019 funding, while investment deals were down by 51 per cent to 29 from first half in 2019.

The top five disclosed funding rounds in first half 2020 accounted for more than 84 per cent of total funding in the first six months in Turkey's startup ecosystem compared to 49 per cent across Mena, according to first half 2020 Turkey Venture Investment launched by Magnitt on Monday.

The Turkish startup ecosystem saw a total of 54 investors in first half 2020, with its vibrant angel investor community representing 53 per cent of all investors, with e-commerce ranking first by number of deals, and delivery and transport taking home the lion's share in terms of funding. This consolidation is partly a function of an evolving and maturing ecosystem, and partly a function of investors skewing to favour large-ticket investments in more established startups against the backdrop of Covid-19 - a trend that is consistent with Mena's startup ecosystem. Turkey saw a sizeable unicorn exit with Peak Games exiting to Zynga for $1.8 billion.

Caglar Urcan, vice-president at Collective Spark, said: "As an early stage investor, we made 10 investments over a two-year period with a high number of local and international co-investors having joined our rounds and hence enabled our startups access to a diverse investor network and source of capital."

There has been significant progress in the Turkish startup ecosystem for the past couple of years thanks to an increasing number of startups with globally scalable business models as well as VC funds, corporate VCs and angel investors with greater appetite to invest in businesses.

Urcan remains bullish on the growth potential of the Turkish startup ecosystem which continues to take shape as an attractive investment climate with an encouraging and ambitious pool of entrepreneurs pursuing global trends, government support to founders and VC funds through grants and other schemes thus enabling increased access to capital and finally successful exit stories to date as a testament to Turkey's position as a technology hotspot for the coming years.

Magnitt, the startup data platform plans to continue expanding to cover more EVMs, and the Turkish expansion is Magnitt's second market after its launch in Pakistan last month.

"Our goal is to aggregate data across opaque emerging venture markets, to provide all decision makers interested in the venture space with the tools to execute on actionable opportunities across borders," said Philip Bahoshy, CEO and founder of Magnitt.

"Emerging venture markets are often under-served from a data perspective. Our solution aims to provide deep, localised, and relevant insights to our stakeholders on the markets that matter to them."
- sandhya@khaleejtimes.com

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