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Inside Turkey's Unicorn Boom: What’s Driving its Startup Success?

Inside Turkey's Unicorn Boom: What’s Driving its Startup Success?

By Nazmia Nassereddine 13 October 2024
Two men smiling and holding a large cartoon-style rocket, representing the Turkish unicorn boom.

The Turkish startup ecosystem has emerged as a powerhouse characterized by explosive growth surpassing many of its regional counterparts in recent years. Turkey’s first private company to be valued at over US $1 billion and attain unicorn status emerged just 4 years ago in 2020, meaning the era is still young, yet it has already produced several unicorns.

The Turkish unicorn story is both unique and instructive. In contrast to the global trend where the first unicorns are usually fintech or e-commerce players, Turkey’s unicorn saga began with gaming company, Peak Games, indicating not a random deviation from the norm, but rather underscoring the country's sophisticated appetite for gaming.

"Turkish software designers are on a world standard. The presence of highly skilled programmers and designe

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Mentioned Startup & VC Profiles
Insider

Insider

Insider is a Growth Management Platform (GMP) that helps digital marketers drive growth across the funnel, from Acquisition to Activation, Retention, and Revenue. They leverage real-time predictive segmentation powered by deep Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning capabilities, GMP empowers marketers to deliver personalized journeys across the web, mobile web, mobile apps, and ad channels. Built on a unified data layer, GMP is easy to implement and simple to use, avoiding the need for complex integrations and dependency on IT teams. Insider simplifies the life of digital marketers and helps them drive growth for their brands, with zero marketing waste.

Trendyol Group

Trendyol Group

Trendyol Group were founded in 2010 with a dynamic and agile start-up spirit. Since then, we have grown into a decacorn, backed by Alibaba, General Atlantic, Softbank, Princeville Capital, and several sovereign wealth funds.

Getir

Getir

Getir is a technology company that joins the worlds of mobile technology and logistics, providing unprecedented solutions to the delivery of goods in urban areas.

Hepsiburada.com

Hepsiburada.com

Hepsiburada operates as a subsidiary of Dogan Online Holding Group, Turkey’s leading internet and digital media company. The company was founded in 1998 by five people working from a studio flat in Istanbul focusing on online orders for IT hardware, driving them out to customers. Company later continued to expand its category and selection base asHepsiburada from 2000 on.

Peak Games

Peak Games

Peak Games is a leading mobile gaming company powered by a team that values relentless progress. Peak believes the best products are created when talented people form autonomous teams that strive for impact. Peak currently has two top charting mobile franchises -- Toon Blast and Toy Blast -- that have consistently ranked within the top 10 and top 20 U.S.iPhone grossing games for the past three years, respectively, and collectively have more than 12 million average mobile DAUs. Peak, founded in 2010, is based in Istanbul, Turkey

Dream Games

Dream Games

Dream Games is a leading mobile gaming company with offices in Istanbul and London. Our objective is to combine technology and creativity to develop high-quality mobile games that will be played for years.

Papara

Papara

At Papara, we're here to build a brighter financial future for our users by introducing groundbreaking products and services. If our mission resonates with you, we invite you to join us on this daring journey. Together, we can disrupt, we can include, and we can redefine the future of finance.

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