Ankara Hosts Series of Cultural Events
The city of Ankara is currently hosting a series of cultural events being promoted by GoTürkiye. The lineup includes dance shows, ballet performances, concerts, and theatre plays. The events are designed to attract both local residents and tourists.
- In 2024, the Turkish startup ecosystem saw a significant increase in investment, reaching $1.1 billion across 469 deals, marking a 44% rise in deal size and a 31% increase in deal count year-over-year. However, foreign investment in Turkish startups hit a five-year low. The total transaction volume, including acquisitions and later-stage investments, surged to $2.6 billion. - AI-focused startups led the charge in funding for 2024, securing $715.8 million, with Insider's $500 million round being the largest. Following AI, the top sectors for investment were biotechnology and healthtech, largely supported by the TÜBİTAK BiGG Fund, which made 42 investments in biotech and 32 in healthtech. - The Turkish government is actively fostering the tech ecosystem with initiatives like the "Türkiye Tech Visa" to attract foreign talent and a national plan aiming to create 100 "Turcorns" (Turkish unicorns) and 100,000 tech enterprises by 2030. Additionally, regulatory changes now allow Turkish Venture Capital Investment Funds (VCIFs) to invest up to 49% of their assets in overseas ventures, a significant increase from the previous 20% limit. - In defense technology, Turkish firms are developing sovereign AI capabilities. Havelsan, a major defense and software company, has created MAIN, a secure, offline AI assistant for corporate use to protect sensitive data, and EYEMINER, an AI-powered video analytics system that has already been exported to an African nation for a road safety project. - While Türkiye has strong academic research output, the commercialization of deep tech research into fundable startups remains a challenge. Initiatives like the De-TECH Competition, a collaboration between Istanbul Technical University and other European universities, aim to bridge this gap by providing training and a €15,000 prize to help researchers bring their innovations to market. - In climatetech, Türkiye is focusing on energy security through renewables, with about 55% of its installed electricity capacity coming from renewable sources as of 2024. The country is also targeting industrial decarbonization in high-emitting, export-oriented sectors like cement and steel to align with EU trade policies such as the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM). Between 2018 and 2022, 148 climate tech startups in Türkiye and the MENA region raised $651 million. - The macroeconomic environment presents challenges, with economic volatility and fundraising difficulties cited by VCs as significant hurdles in 2025. Despite this, 42% of Turkey's largest corporations invested in or partnered with startups in 2024, up from 22% in 2022, indicating growing corporate engagement. - Global LP sentiment towards venture capital remains steady, with a majority planning to invest the same amount in the next 12 months as they did in the previous year. However, performance expectations have tempered, with 33% of LPs predicting their venture portfolios will fall below benchmarks, an increase from 19% in the prior year's survey.
