Source Verification List

114 technoparks, 12,800+ ventures (April 2026)

113 TDZs, 47 provinces (September 2025)

10,888 companies, 485 foreign-partnered, 2,957 incubation, 2,078 academic-partnered (August 2024)

1,363 active R&D centres, 58 provinces, 80 new certificates in 2025

R&D personnel ~310,000; R&D spend $19.9 billion

2024 R&D spend TRY 651.8 billion; 1.46% of GDP; private sector TRY 422 billion (64.8%); indirect incentive share 25.1%; 89.4% in firms with 250+ staff; Istanbul 33.4% / Ankara 27.8% / Kocaeli 9.4%

Central budget R&D TRY 178.6 billion (2024)

46.9% of manufacturing R&D in high-tech, 40.2% in medium-high-tech

TÜBİTAK 2025: 10,539 projects, TRY 14.5 billion

Health: 14,344 projects, TRY 82 billion over 23 years; 900+ technology ventures

BiGG 2025-1: 2,031 applications, 101 selected, TRY 900,000 for 3% equity

TEYDEB commercialisation monitoring process exists; aggregate rate not public

34,239 projects and 58,663 staff in R&D centres

2024 domestic patent applications 10,186; utility models 3,065; 414 in 2002

Universities: 1,640 applications from 148 universities (2024)

1,347 patented technology ventures; 3,065 applications; 17% (227) have raised investment

Registration time 36 months in 2023 → 25 months in 2025

2025: 359 rounds, $622 million; median $600,000

2025: 360 deals, $1.4 billion (2024: 331 deals, $2.6 billion)

First 9 months of 2025: 240 rounds, $475 million; health/biotech, gaming, fintech, manufacturing technologies lead by deal count

Seed → Series A transition structurally weak; CVC count flat at 92, no new CVCs

Companies receiving R&D incentives must invest 3% of the incentives in VC funds (2021 reform)

2025 Q1: 53 rounds / $77.6 million (StartupCentrum); 49 rounds / $58 million (Startups.Watch); 59 deals / $70.2 million (KPMG)

Mediterra Fund I €164 million (2013), LPs: AlpInvest, DEG, EBRD, FMO, IFC, iVCi, Siguler Guff + Turkish families; Fund II €166 million; 16 investments, 8 exits

İstanbul Portföy Mediterra 3 GSYF: a local VC investment fund investing into an offshore master fund; net 12%+ EUR target

Actera $3.3 billion+; Turkven Guernsey-based

Earlybird Digital East: ~30% of Peak Games, ~$520 million from the Zynga sale; UiPath seed investment enabled a $150 million fund to return $2.3 billion; Bek Ventures $250 million

GSYF income exempt from corporate tax (CIT Law 5/1-d); zero withholding on units held 2 years; Tax Procedure Law 325/A GSYF deduction

Dividend taxation risk under the Türkiye–Netherlands treaty after the MLI

28 November 2025 "Regulation on Participation in Venture Capital Funds": call-based contributions from the Ministry budget; criteria include manager experience, realised returns, leverage

Türkiye Development Fund: $31 million committed to 9 VC/PE funds; total fund size $641 million

26+ GSYF authorisations (2025 Q1); number of GSYFs rising

Offices on four continents; established presence in Western Europe and Asia (Hong Kong, Shanghai, Mumbai, Singapore, Tokyo line); no office in Türkiye

Recently reinforced Gulf presence; three tasks: regional investor relations, carrying the portfolio into the region, direct investment as conditions allow

Hundreds of billions of dollars under management; multi-asset; impact, early-stage, growth/technology and private equity arms with separate execution capacity

Reputation for fund architecture: track record of building multi-layer fund structures and managing them on four continents

China R&D 2024: RMB 3.61 trillion (~$496 billion), 2.68% of GDP; 2025: RMB 3.93 trillion (~$550 billion), 2.8%

China R&D personnel 7.57 million FTE; 24 of the top 100 innovation clusters

China VC 2024: $40.2 billion, down 36.7%; H1 2025 deals with foreign participation 112, $2.1 billion; fundraising below a quarter of the prior year

FDI into China 2024: $4.5 billion, lowest since 1991

India R&D ~0.65% of GDP

India startup funding 2025: ~$10.5 billion (calendar year), 1,518 rounds (down 39%); FY26: $11.7 billion, 1,632 rounds; seed $1.1 billion (down 30%)

For Indian VCs the chief execution risk is talent shortage, not capital (74% expect improvement)

Indian IPOs carried by domestic capital (exit resilience)

DCP: €30 million first technology transfer fund in 2015, EU IPA, EIF as main investor, technopark and university LPs; today a deep-tech VC

Inventram: Koç + Mitsui partnership, 2010, first patent licensing 2013

ACT Venture Partners: EU IPA co-financed fund; Eatron round led by LG Technology Ventures with TDF participation

TTGV: first local LP in Turkven and İş Girişim in 2000; iVCi anchor; LP in Mediterra II, Taxim I, Digital East II; Teknoloji Yatırım A.Ş. affiliate

TWF Türkiye Technology Fund; TDF Technology and Innovation Fund (26 investments, January 2026 Mindsite Series A)

Türkiye AI Action Plan: 4 axes, 16 actions; target of more than TRY 1 trillion in economic value

Targets: 1 GW data-centre capacity; $10 billion private investment; 10,000 advanced specialists + 100,000 application professionals; 10 million GPU-hours of access a year; regulatory sandboxes in at least 5 sectors

Financing Ladder: National AI Research Fund (seed and breakthrough; automatic HPC/GPU credit package) + AI Growth Fund (Series A/B, public–private co-investment, dedicated AI investment window)

Physical AI and Robotics Programme: transfer of defence experience, automotive and machinery capacity into autonomous systems, robotics, smart manufacturing; domestic production capacity

Investment attraction: single-window investor interface; pre-eligibility and investment roadmap in at most 30 business days; AI Growth Zones (campuses with energy and infrastructure ready); Centres of Excellence (rapid prototyping)

Export calendar: incentive and export framework within 12 months; first licensing/export agreements by end-2027; at least 10 licensing/co-development agreements, 3 priority markets, 25 overseas enterprise deployments by end-2028

AI criteria in public procurement; solutions with a digital badge admitted to the state procurement Tech Catalogue

Phasing: 2026–2027 infrastructure, pilots and investment processes; 2028–2030 scaling of pilots, commercialisation of sectoral models, completion of investment targets

Closed-end private capital dry powder $4.63 trillion at end-Q2 2025; 97% of the increase from PE

Buyout dry powder $1.3 trillion; "12 is the new 5" (twice the EBITDA growth for the same return)

Ageing dry powder (4+ years) share 24% (20% in 2022)

16,000+ companies held longer than 4 years; 52% of inventory, record high

US PE-backed median hold 6.0 years (2023 peak 7 years; pre-pandemic 5.2); average 6.6 years (McKinsey 2026); time to clear US portfolio 8.5–9 years

Venture studio benchmarks: Series A in 25.2 months (classic 56); 72% reach Series A (classic 42%); average IRR 53% (classic 21.3%); acquisition ~5 years, 33% faster

Classic VC hold 7–10 years; DPI is cash truth, IRR is speed, TVPI is paper

Sunk cost [$3–6 billion]; recoverable cargo [$300–600 million] of productisation capital; year-5 product value [$5–12 billion]

9 / 18 / 36-month targets; DPI 1.0x in 36 months; [3x+] in year 5

Venture capital entering Türkiye per year is less than one-thousandth of waiting global dry powder (1.4 / 4,630 ≈ 0.03%)