Turkish startups receive $746M in foreign investments in Q2

By Sevgi Ceren Gokkoyun

ANKARA (AA) - Some 63 Turkish startups received $746 million in investments from abroad during the second quarter of this year, the Turkish industry and technology minister said on Tuesday.

With this figure, Turkey surpassed several EU members, including Finland, Norway, Austria, Denmark, Ireland, Italy and Belgium, Mustafa Varank said at a virtual conference on Turkey's entrepreneurship ecosystem.

He said Turkey showed its potential to the world with its first unicorn Peak Games in 2020.

Unicorn refers to startups valued over $1 billion.

Varank underlined that other unicorns – Getir and Dream Games – have proved that Peak Games was not a coincidence.

Touching on Turkey's target of reaching 10 unicorns till 2023, he said it is not a difficult goal for the country.

He also said during the first half of 2021, some 129 Turkish startups received $1.3 billion in foreign investments.

*Writing by Gokhan Ergocun from Istanbul.