Number of investments doubling in Turkey comparing to previous two years
Turkish technological sector has been experiencing a major boom over the first half of the 2013. The number of Venture Funds, angel investors and number of investments are growing dramatically. The total amount of Venture Capital investment in Turkey was around $142M* in 2011. It decreased to $100M level in 2012 and has already passed […]
Ekosistemin Yedi Temel Unsuru — I
Türkiye’deki İnternet Ekosistemine Bakış ve Türkiye’nin Internet ve Teknoloji Ekosistemine ve Geleceğine Yatırım yazılarında yedi temel unsurdan kısaca bahsetmiştik. Kısa bir yazı dizisi ile detaylarına inerek düşüncelerimizi paylaşmak istiyoruz. 1. Pazar Yatırımcılar istedikleri kadar para yatırsınlar, girişimciler istedikleri kadar yeni iş modelleri geliştirsinler, eğer pazar küçükse veya hazır yapacak bir şey yok (Bakınız: Apple Newton). Pazar deyince […]
Trust — Respect — Transparency
At 212 we live by these three values and expect the same from our partners. Our job is to find out founders who live and build their businesses based with these values. Rest comes (actually “starts”) later… Launching a start-up is very easy; converting it to a business is very hard. It’s even harder to […]
Investment in Meddy
In 2016, Haris Aghadi graduated from Carnegie Mellon University Qatar with a bachelor’s degree in information systems. Instead of doing what his friends were doing at the time: getting a stable job in Doha with steady income, he decided to take an idea he developed for a class project to market and launched Meddy. I […]
Building deal-pipeline & some news
While we are meeting with potential LPs (Limited Partners) to raise 212VC fund, we are constantly adding startups to our deal-pipeline. So far it has been very encouraging to see quality entrepreneurs starting businesses in Turkey despite the global turbulence in the economy. Last week alone, we were introduced to six new startups. Building a […]
Startups, investments, & role of the government
Following decades of living in between Tokyo and New York and working at investment banks, I decided to move to Istanbul in 2010 to cultivate entrepreneurship and venture investments. The city, Turkey’s financial center, had started to emerge as a hub for tech startups, particularly in the e-commerce sector. Yet, there were no institutional investors […]
II before AI — Why Turkish Entrepreneurs need an ‘International Intelligence’
Ussal Sahbaz just published an interesting post — Why Turkey needs a National Artificial Intelligence Strategy. Ussal is a dear friend, CEO of EDAM, an Istanbul based independent think-tank, anyone interested in Turkey and startups should follow. On his post, he argues that against the AI giants of USA and China only a few small countries can […]
Bu adamlar deli mi?
Türk şirketlerinin 2023’e kadar 64 milyar doları yurtdışındaki alım ve yatırımlara yöneltmesi bekleniyormuş[1]. Sevindirici bir gelişme; dünya sadece bulunduğunuz ülkeden ibaret değil, fırsatları kollamak, farklı ülke ve sektörlere açılmak bu rekabet ortamında her işletmenin olmazsa olmazı. Benim anlamadığım, Türk şirketlerinin burnunun dibinde olan diğer fırsatları görmüyor olması. Bu ülkeden dünya çapında başarı hikayesi olma yolunda […]
Notes from Singularity University
I attended Singularity University Global Summit this year. It was good to see what the greatest minds in the world are working on. From AI to Blockchain, Energy to Medicine and Manufacturing to Quantum computing. Few areas caught my eyes It was fascinating to listen to Ramez Naam again. He mentioned how renewable energy prices are lower […]
8 Traits of a Successful Technology Entrepreneur
Each month, we invite special guests from different disciplines and backgrounds to give our founders new perspectives which they can apply in their companies on a daily basis. One of the latest events was hosted by 212’s own, Dr. Maher Hakim. In addition to being an investor, a coach, a mentor, and an ecosystem builder, Maher […]