Startups flourish in Turkey

ANKARA - Anadolu Agency

The number of Turkish startup companies jumped sharply in 2014, fueled by relative confidence in Turkish business conditions despite relatively slow economic growth. 

“Turkish entrepreneurs aren’t daunted by difficult conditions,” said Fırat İleri, a principal at the Dutch private equity fund Hummingbird, which has made a number of investments in Turkish startups. “They tend to be experienced in their fields, and they have a clear vision of how they expect to succeed,” he said.

Confidence is clearly a critical factor for Turkish startups, agreed Seltem İyigün, an economist with the credit insurance firm Coface in Istanbul.

“Business confidence indexes were relatively high for Turkey in 2014,” İyigun said. “And there was still sufficient growth to bolster optimism among entrepreneurs.”

The number of new startups in Turkey was about 60,000 as of September 2014, up from about 45,000 in September 2013, according to statistics in the Coface Panorama Turkey report, published in January. One recent startup, Nanokomp, a maker of high-technology materials such as engineered composite materials, has made deals with several important international manufacturers. Another firm, armut.com, now has more than 40,000 associates listed, along with funding from Hummingbird.