NEWS

Turkey became the 10th country to attract the most investment among European countries over two years and hosts six unicorns. A network of entrepreneurs, start-ups, academics and researchers meet each year for the world’s biggest aviation, space and technology festival, Teknofest. Four unicorns in the space say that unicorns must embrace digital transformation and governments must support the ecosystem and nurture small-medium sized businesses through policy but they must refrain from regulation or favouring traditional offline enterprises. The 2020s mark an important period for Turkey with its entrepreneurial ecosystem advancing fast.

Türkiye has set its sights on fostering tech startups that rapidly scale from the startup phase to achieve unicorn status—a term commonly used to refer to companies reaching a billion-dollar valuation globally. As part of its National Technology Initiative, the Ministry of Industry and Technology introduced the Turcorn 100 program with the aim of facilitating the expansion of high-growth potential tech ventures into global markets. The 2019 Industry and Technology Strategy Document targeted the establishment of 10 Turcorns by 2023. As of 2022, Türkiye's tech entrepreneurship ecosystem has produced six Turcorns: Peak Games, Getir, Dream Games, Trendyol, Hepsiburada, and Insider. These Turcorns have made a name for themselves on the global stage, contributing to increased exports and attract...

The "National Startup Strategy" constitutes one of the five components of the "2023 Industry and Technology Strategy," which is part of the "National Technology - Strong Industry" approach. "Entrepreneurship" is one of the key pillars of this strategy. "Technology Entrepreneurship" is also considered a significant component of the country's development and the National Technology Initiative. In this context, the "National Startup Strategy" was published on October 27, 2022, aiming to accelerate the development of technology entrepreneurship in the country, identify the open areas for growth in the entrepreneurship ecosystem, and strengthen these areas strategically to build a globally leading technology entrepreneurship ecosystem.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has issued a decree titled "National Startup Strategy" with the aim of accelerating the development pace of technology entrepreneurship and further strengthening the ecosystem in this area. In the decree published in the Official Gazette, President Erdoğan stated that activities and progress towards realizing the "National Technology Movement," which aims to develop and produce high-value-added and critical technological products with local and national capabilities in Türkiye, have gained momentum.