Key Highlights:
- Turkish Startups Secured $1.1 Billion Investment in 2024
- Average Deal sizes Grew by 44% and Transactions by 31%
- Government keen to Implement AI Infrastructure Across Industries
The industry monitor reported that it closed the year 2024 with 469 investment deals worth $1.1 billion, or TL 39.23 billion, for Türkiye’s startup ecosystem. As a source of notable growth in the ecosystem, TÜBITAK’s Individual Youth Startup (BIGG) Fund managed to once again stand out with 42 pre-seed investments in biotechnology, 32 in health, and 27 in artificial intelligence.
According to the statistics published during an event organized by startups.watch, 2024 was also the year in which Türkiye received the most pre-seed investments to date.
According to a report, general deal sizes grew by 44% and the number of transactions rose by 31% from the previous year. Leaving out BİGG Fund investments, the AI sector retained the top position followed by cloud-based software services, financial technology or fintech, and gaming.
In 2024, the country had five new corporate venture capitals, making the total number of CVCs in the country reach 91. Counting acceleration programs and funds that are associated with them, it increases to 101.
In addition, the volume of VCIF that received approval even increased up to 455 even with 15 getting closed; that is, number of active 440. Still, even while more equity-based crowdfunding platforms made entry, volume of investment dipped by 61% and numbers of transactions plunged by 47%.
As foreign interest in Turkey’s startup scene reached its five-year low, the numbers of deals along with ratios of foreign investments dropped drastically in the country’s ecosystem.
2024 has been a pretty eventful year for Turkish startups in terms of IPOs, exits, and acquisitions. The various deals made were done with satisfaction of the investors while still giving Turkish startups space to breathe.
This ranges from a Series E funding deal to quite a lot of attention for Insider during times when access to funds is restricted. In regards to exits, however, gaming startups received recognition through the deals.
Alternative funding methods and IPO strategies highlighted diverse investment opportunities, with successful exit deals also providing some positives for investors in tech startups.
“We see that most of the technology trends we discussed last year have materialized. Total foreign investment is around $10.9 billion, which is in the same amount as the previous year. Technology investments are on a recovery path, and we are ready for large data center projects,” declared Burak Dağlıoğlu, head of the Presidency’s Investment Office.
“AI is a huge agenda for Turkey. In terms of the Personal Data Protection Board, we harmonized our laws with the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and we are ready to increase investment in the AI infrastructure. I see huge investment pouring into the data centers of Türkiye, which may also spill over to this region,” said Dağlıoğlu.
He also announced launching of educational portal under domain Start in Türkiyethat would serve as easily accessible investments for businessmen.
