Turkish Private Equity and Venture Capital Eco System has gone from 0 to 1 since 2007 & stuck?

Currently there are at least 15 private equity funds established in Turkey and for investments mainly in Turkey with capital commitments reaching over $3 billion in their active funds. They are currently invested in more than 50 companies and some very successful exits have already taken place since the highly successful 2010-2011 fundraising rounds, and average holding periods are not exceeding 5 years yet. So still early to be talking about zombies in the portfolios, although there are some very strong candidates in some funds' portfolios.

Furthermore, there are at least 5 regional funds investing strongly in Turkey from their international capital commitments reaching over $1 billion and there are several other global players with or without offices doing deals flying in and out without a specific commitment to Turkey.

On top of this private equity, and more recently venture capital eco system boost, that has taken place after 2007-2008 crisis, and essentially following 2010-2011 period, we have been watching the birth and sudden growth spurt of the start up and entrepreneurship eco system alongside seed and angel investments.

There were no accelerators, incubators, angel investors or angel investment groups in Turkey back in 2007. Just ten years later it is as if every large city has a few of these with Istanbul and then Ankara leading with tens of them.

As someone who has been at the centre of these developments since the beginning as an investor in most of these funds and continued relationship with many of all these amazing people who made real change in Turkey's startup ecosystem, I believe I have a good vantage point keeping a healthy distance form London yet still following up who is who and doing exactly what. Although admittedly it has become almost impossible to attend all major events and talk to all industry participants recently, essentially after 2011 (back in 2010 for example you would be able to invite all major participants to a cocktail meeting or see almost all participant at an industry event such as etohum's startup Turkey gatherings.

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