Türkiye’s startup ecosystem noticed $211 million raised throughout 91 funding rounds within the first half of 2025, in accordance with information launched by the trade monitor startups.watch at an occasion held at Istanbul Technical University (ITÜ) ARI Teknokent Magnet.
The numbers highlighted a nonetheless uneven funding panorama, with monetary expertise, or fintech, gaming and synthetic intelligence main the best way in capital attraction.
Fintech startups attracted the lion’s share of funding, elevating $97.1 million, adopted by gaming ($72.4 million) and AI ($12.6 million). However, 93% of the fintech complete was captured by simply two startups – Sipay and Fimple.
That factors to an absence of diversification throughout the sector, whereas in distinction, gaming investments had been extra evenly distributed throughout a number of firms.
Among the most important funding offers within the first half of 2025 had been Sipay’s $85 million spherical, Good Job Games’ $78 million, Bigger Games’ $25 million and a remaining $23 million spherical. These main offers accounted for a good portion of the entire funding quantity.
Early-stage bottlenecks
The longstanding problem for the Turkish startup ecosystem – transitioning from seed to Series A and past – continued within the first half of 2025. Data reveals that the dearth of post-early-stage funding continues to restrict the ecosystem’s progress potential.
Compared to Europe, the common seed funding quantity in Türkiye is lower than half, indicating that startups battle to safe adequate sources to achieve Series A. This additionally explains the tendency of entrepreneurs to relocate their startups overseas after Series B.
No new company enterprise capital (CVC) funds had been introduced within the first half of the yr, with the entire quantity holding regular at 92. However, 45 new enterprise capital funding funds (VCIF) had been licensed, bringing the entire to 499, with 478 at the moment energetic after excluding closed funds.
Foreign participation ticks up
One of the key developments of the interval was Revo Capital’s third fund finishing its first shut and beginning new investments.
Although the rise in minimal fund measurement necessities for VCIFs appears to have slowed the formation of latest funds, it’s anticipated to contribute to the creation of a extra sustainable fund financial system.
While the participation price of overseas traders seems to have risen, this is because of a drop within the complete variety of funding rounds.
In actuality, overseas traders took half in solely 17 rounds. Seven of those had been within the gaming sector, indicating continued worldwide confidence in Türkiye’s gaming trade.
Meanwhile, equity-based crowdfunding continued its sluggish however regular tempo. Türkiye now hosts 28 crowdfunding platforms, 12 of that are energetic and two have closed. Just 11 profitable crowdfunding campaigns had been accomplished within the first half of 2025, leading to a complete funding of $9.6 million.
Representation of feminine co-founders remained comparatively secure, much like earlier years. Among funded startups, the share with feminine founders stood at 19%, whereas the proportion amongst newly established startups was recorded at 12%.
Acquisitions
The complete quantity of acquisitions and secondary transactions reached $864 million, however 81% of this quantity got here solely from the Trendyol Go acquisition, indicating that the general M&A market stays low in quantity.
Other notable transactions included n11, Burgeon, Ideasoft, Ticimax and Fineksus.
Data from the primary half of 2025 reveals each alternatives and challenges in Türkiye’s startup ecosystem.
High rates of interest, rising inflation and world developments have negatively impacted seed-stage investments, inflicting a 43% decline. However, Istanbul’s robust rankings in worldwide reviews, the continued robust efficiency of the gaming sector and the launch of latest investments by main funds are seen as promising indicators.
The most crucial want for sustainable progress within the ecosystem is to fill the post-seed funding hole and strengthen help mechanisms that allow entrepreneurs to achieve later phases domestically.
No CFO? No drawback: FinSmart AI affords digital twin
Among the startups backed by TT Ventures, FinSmart AI has stood out as a enterprise centered on offering small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with the monetary experience they want by means of a digital agent resolution.
The partnership between Türk Telekom’s enterprise capital arm and FinSmart AI presents a compelling case from each a technological and strategic funding perspective.
Speaking on the “Türkiye Startup Ecosystem Q2 2025 Event” hosted by startups.watch, FinSmart AI government Akgün Karlıbel defined how their AI-powered CFO providers deal with essential monetary administration wants for SMEs and startups.
Karlıbel described FinSmart AI as a construction that “offers AI agent and CFO services to startups and SMEs,” emphasizing that they ship a digitized model of an actual CFO as a service.
He famous that monetary literacy does not must be on the identical degree for everybody, and FinSmart AI helps all ventures and SMEs that both can’t afford a CFO or lack adequate monetary literacy.
Founder CEO cloned himself
While describing FinSmart AI’s improvement course of, Akgün Karlıbel shared the expertise of founder CEO Suat, who has almost 20 years in finance and the final six years as a CFO.
The journey started with Suat’s realization that he was spending most of his time reporting, which led first to automating macros in Excel after which to productizing the answer.
“We cloned our founding CEO Suat and the system – essentially creating a Suat within the system using AI,” Karlıbel said.
Dataroom comfort
Karlıbel emphasised that making a “dataroom” is a key job for startups looking for funding, and FinSmart AI gives vital worth on this course of by means of correct and dependable reporting.
He added that enterprise capital funds utilizing FinSmart AI can monitor the monetary efficiency of their portfolio firms on a single platform.
Always-awake CFO
Addressing the position of synthetic intelligence and machine studying within the monetary sector, Karlıbel said that new developments happen every day and that they keep updated by working with consultants within the subject.
He defined that whereas AI at the moment affords “static” suggestions, their future imaginative and prescient is a “24/7 CFO” that is still alert always.
This imaginative and prescient goals to create a platform the place, by means of proactive AI, founders can have interaction in interactive conversations – even in the midst of the night time –to search out options to any query that involves thoughts.
Istanbul emerges as rising star in startup ecosystem
Istanbul has climbed to say third place globally within the Emerging Startup Ecosystem class, marking a 10-spot leap in comparison with 2024, in accordance with a current report by Startup Genome.
This success was additionally praised throughout the “Türkiye Startup Ecosystem Q2 2025 Event” hosted by startups.watch.
In his keynote, Istanbul Technical University (ITÜ) ARI Teknokent General Manager Atila Dikbaş underscored Istanbul’s fast rise on the worldwide stage.
“According to the Global Startup Ecosystem Report published by Startup Genome in June 2025, Istanbul ranked third globally in the ‘Emerging Ecosystems’ category. This achievement marks a jump of 10 places compared to 2024,” Dikbaş stated.
In the just lately launched Dealroom Global Tech Ecosystem Index 2025, Istanbul additionally ranked second worldwide, one other signal of its growing world competitiveness. As regularly emphasised by Minister of Industry and Technology Fatih Kacır, Türkiye’s startup ecosystem has climbed to the No. 3 spot globally.
With six unicorns – Getir, Peak, Dream Games, Trendyol, Hepsiburada, and Insider – Istanbul has emerged as a regional chief.
The metropolis’s ecosystem worth has reached $12.9 billion, reinforcing its regional attraction, in accordance with Dikbaş. Over the previous 4 years, complete enterprise capital funding has exceeded $6.4 billion, surpassing the worldwide common, he famous. The metropolis scored a powerful 8 out of 10 in early-stage funding progress. Startups in Istanbul attain an exit in a median of 9.3 years, demonstrating the town’s fast scalability potential.
New funding fund
Dikbaş additionally introduced the launch of the ITÜ ARI Teknokent Venture Capital Investment Fund, which is able to debut in September 2025 with an preliminary measurement of $25 million.
A second funding car is deliberate for 2026.
Among different notable developments, it was introduced that previously three months, ITÜ Teknokent has performed acceleration packages with 14 startups in Germany and 12 in London, and can be engaged on an AI acceleration program in collaboration with Stanford University.
ITÜ Çekirdek’s leap
Founded in 2011, ITÜ Çekirdek, considered one of Türkiye’s premier early-stage incubators, has made a outstanding world leap in recent times, with participation from 95 international locations, in accordance with Dikbaş.
“According to the Startup Blinking Global Startup Ecosystem Index 2025, the Middle East and surrounding regions have outperformed the global average by 21%, with a regional growth rate exceeding 28%. Over the past three years, we’ve been offering 24/7 services under the name ‘Innogate Always On,’ operating in five hubs – four in Europe and one in Dubai,” he famous.
ITÜ Çekirdek’s worldwide acceleration packages have been bringing worldwide startups to Türkiye since 2022. “To date, we’ve received over 1,000 applications from 95 countries and supported more than 140 foreign startups,” stated Dikbaş.
‘Easy Export Platform’ empowers Türkiye’s commerce progress
Hasan Önal, head of the E-Export and Next-Generation Technologies Department on the Trade Ministry’s Directorate General for Exports, shared insights into Türkiye’s rising software program export quantity, authorities help packages and evolving tendencies in world commerce.
Speaking throughout the “Türkiye Startup Ecosystem Q2 2025 Event,” Önal said that the journey has come a great distance for the reason that days in 2009 when software program exports had been measured utilizing floppy disks, noting that software program exports, which stood at $412 million in 2012, have approached $5 billion as of 2024.
He emphasised the significance of the Trade Ministry’s help for the software program ecosystem in driving this progress. Under the “Service Sector Support” scheme, the federal government affords a variety of help, from market analysis and company identification improvement to participation within the Turquality program, employment incentives and worldwide commerce festivals.
Önal expressed remorse that, regardless of allocating TL 3.2 billion (about $80 million) to the software program sector final yr, these helps are nonetheless not extensively recognized by the general public.
AI-powered platform
Önal additionally highlighted that the ministry has taken vital steps within the subject of e-export, highlighting that the “Easy Export Platform,” launched on the finish of 2020, makes use of an AI-supported mannequin particularly for B2B.
He emphasised that the platform gives info on customs tariff statistical positions and, notably, on international locations’ business cultures. He added {that a} newly fashioned group, launched in August 2024 for B2C, affords insights into overseas marketplaces, youth demographics, spoken languages, social media utilization habits and influencer information.
Önal additionally famous that the AI-powered “Team Expert Intelligence” chatbot featured on these platforms permits customers to entry info with out having to navigate manually. He expressed satisfaction at partaking straight with builders and affirmed the ministry’s dedication to ongoing dialogue with the ecosystem.
Source: www.dailysabah.com