12 LAWYERMONTHLYMARCH 2023 In 2021, more than 300 start-ups were established, receiving a total investment of $1.5 billion, from nearly a thousand investors. Turkish companies. I believe, however, that the most important reason for the surge is the increasing number of creative start-up ideas. As the world is moving away from conventionality towards a technologycentric understanding, the investments in Turkey are in line with this global trend if not faster. I can easily state that the large number of projects developed by Turkish entrepreneurs, especially in the past 5 years, and the number of incentives and support mechanisms provided by Turkish legislation for investments in start-ups, are the main driving forces behind the development of the start-up sector in Turkey. How is the Turkish government acting to encourage this investment? Turkish legislation provides many Is there a particular sector in Turkey that has attracted significant investment in recent years? It is easy for me to say that Turkey has risen to a new level and become a core investment area in many different sectors in recent years. In 2021, more than 300 start-ups were established, receiving a total investment of $1.5 billion from nearly a thousand investors. In the last two years, eCommerce, gaming and data analytics in finance (i.e. AI and machine learning) became the emerging sectors, receiving the most investments. I would like to highlight that most of these investments were made in start-ups that had just received their first investments, while almost half of these start-ups were founded in the last 2 years. As such, it is safe for me to state that eCommerce, gaming and data analytics have received significant investments and have shown greater development than in other areas in recent years, although their rankings (in terms of the number of transactions) vary. It is because conventional production ideas are being replaced by technology, software, and even blockchain-based applications in today’s world. I find these developments will have positive impacts and believe that the number of such initiatives will only increase in the upcoming years. What are the reasons behind the recent surge in investment in Turkish companies? Turkey is a regional hub. Having the potential to address a large market and having a young, dynamic, and educated population can be listed as the reasons for the recent increase in investments in The Turkish startup ecosystem has experienced a significant increase in the number of tech start-ups spearheaded by the gaming, finance, health and eCommerce sectors, which have attracted domestic and foreign investors and grabbed billion-dollar investments by reaching record valuations. At Gökçe Attorney Partnership, we provide legal expertise to a swath of tech start-ups at every stage of their journeys. Figopara, a pioneer fintech Turkish company, is one of the start-ups to which Gökçe provides its key legal expertise. Figopara offers solutions for cash flow problems arising from the discrepancy between the payments and collections of companies, acting as an intermediary between financial institutions and suppliers with the Figopara online platform. Since Figopara’s establishment, Gökçe has been aiding Figopara and its founders in all legal and financial processes with its years of experience in the start-up ecosystem. Figopara received an investment of $11 million at a valuation of $50 million in its latest investment round, which was closed in the last quarter of 2022. In this investment round, Figopara has secured investment from 11 local and international leading investors, including the International Finance Corporation, the private sector arm of the World Bank Group, and local and cross-border investment funds. Görkem Gökçe, the founding and managing partner of Gökçe, aims to transfer his deep knowledge of the start-up ecosystem to Turkish start-ups and to contribute to their aim of becoming influential regional and global actors. Investments in Turkey
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