The Turkish startup ecosystem has been going strong since the late 90’s and early 2000’s when internet based startups emerged. Financial Times has even hailed Turkey as the star of European Tech in a recent article. With companies like Yemeksepeti, Getir, Trendyol and many more, we can’t get around Turkey’s startup development.
Its startups can achieve long term growth and turn into huge, profitable companies. Now let’s look into the reasons why this is the case.
1.The Placement Is Amazing
Turkey is a natural bridge between Europe and Asia. And its eclectic culture is influenced by both. Istanbul is a gold mine when it comes to offering strategic access to major markets in these areas as well as the Middle East. According to TurkStat numbers, Turkey has access to 995 million consumers through Customs Union and FTA’s. Istanbul became the 7th city in Europe where the most investments were made in Q1 2021.
2. It Possesses Competitive Workforce & Skilled Talent
Turkey has an untapped pool of great talent. It is full of educated and skilled human capital. Its young and dynamic population means it has one of the lowest age dependency ratio in the region. More than 6.7 million students are currently enrolled in University and annually 800,000 of them are graduating. Turkey has a world-class engineering education and is one of the most qualified engineers in the world.
3.There Is A Strong Entrepreneurial Community
There is a strong entrepreneurial community of startup founders and co-founders in Istanbul which means there are many opportunities for networking and partnerships. Startups of all developmental stages can take part in the numerous entrepreneurship-oriented events, conferences, hackathons, co-working spaces and accelerator programs. Thanks to the newly digitised and/or hybrid models for events and programs, entrepreneurs from all around the country can learn from each-other, come together and create something new.
4.They Have One Of The Largest Economies
Turkey has the 11th largest economy in the world as of 2020, moving up from 18th in 2003 boasting fast growth. It is one of the biggest emerging economies of the region with 5.1% average annual GDP growth. Between 2009–2019 it has successfully generated approximately 6.8 million new jobs. Previous inflation rates and the high volatility accompanying them has been reined in and kept under control in the last 19 years. Turkey has increased its export volume from $36 billion to $171 billion in the past 17 years and has outpaced world performance with an impressive 11% average annual growth.
5.It’s Government Motivates Foreign Investment
The Turkish government wants to encourage foreign investment and has created incentives based on the different categories of investor you might fall into. There are 7 ‘profiles’ of investors defined for quality FDI’s according to Turkey’s investment office. These profiles range from R&D, Design and Innovation Center Investments to Investments Reducing Import Dependency. They favour these types of investors, but don’t exclude others.
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