Thread by @Siftedeu

Investment into Turkey’s tech scene skyrocketed in 2020: Turkish startups raised a record $139m and local VCs raised $328m, according to @startupswatch 🇹🇷

Let’s dive into Turkey’s VC landscape 🧵👇

1/ Despite a 31% growth in VC and angel investment from 2019, more than half of the total $139m raised went to Turkish companies with a legal structure abroad:

2/ Turkey’s largest funding round in 2020 was into marketing management platform @useinsider ($32m). Other notable funding rounds include @AppSamurai’s $2.4m Series A, @visperaco’s $2.1m Series B and Twin’s $2m crowdfunding.

3/ Investment in Turkey’s female founded or cofounded startups hit $43m in 2020, representing 14% of total capital raised. That was $37m more than 2019 (although most of this capital went to @useinsider cofounded by @HandeCilingir).

4/ But funding in the Turkish ecosystem isn’t equally distributed: 64% of all disclosed funding in 2020 went to just 10 Series A and above startups:

5/ Software, AI, marketing, healthcare and fintech were the most popular tech sectors with investors: SaaS companies raised $50m — more than double what fintech and healthtech startups secured in 2020:

6/ What’s more, corporate and angel investment in Turkish startups more than doubled last year, from $15m in 2019 to $37m in 2020.

@alestayatirim, Teknogirişim GSYF and @Teknasyon_ accounted for 29 of the 62 CVC deals:

7/ The report also highlights fundraising from the Turkish diaspora, including Berlin-based Gorillas’ $44m Series A, London-based @streetbeess' $39m Series B and San Francisco-based @CarbonHealth’s $126m Series C.

8/ What’s next for Turkey, according to @startupswatch’s @serkanunsal:
-Someone needs to find a solution for the Series B+ funding gap
-We’ll see a boom in gaming: 70 game studios were founded last year, all inspired by the successful exits of @peaklabs and @GramGS.

9/ “There is now probably the highest amount of dry powder available ever in Turkey, which is well reciprocated by an ambitious cohort of founders and record-breaking rounds. Gaming and #deeptech are the rising stars," says Altan Küçükçınar, partner at VC firm DCP.