The (not so) hidden data behind Turkey’s startup ecosystem
TRVC episode 27 with Serkan Ünsal
Hi everyone,
This week on TRVC, I sat down with Serkan Ünsal, founder of Startups.watch — the platform that has quietly become one of the core data sources behind the Turkish startup and venture capital ecosystem.
If you’ve ever seen quarterly Turkish VC funding numbers shared online, chances are there’s a good probability the underlying data came from Serkan and his team.
But this conversation went far beyond startup databases.
We talked about:
why Turkey has become surprisingly strong at seed-stage investing
why the ecosystem still struggles at Series A and growth stage
how Turkish gaming companies became globally competitive
why AI startups in Turkey are still early
why Turkish startups often wait too long to globalize
why acquisitions are still uncommon among Turkish corporates
and what foreign investors actually think about the Turkish market
One thing I especially enjoyed was hearing Serkan’s perspective on the evolution of the ecosystem over the last 15 years — from a time when “startup” was barely a commonly used word in Turkey, to today’s much more mature venture ecosystem.
Before founding Startups.watch, Serkan worked at Ericsson Turkey and Turkcell, where he was involved in one of the earliest internal discussions around creating a corporate VC arm in Turkey back in 2008.
He later founded and exited his own startup, before a trip to Silicon Valley inspired him to build a platform tracking startup and investment activity in Turkey.
Today, Startups.watch contributes Turkish ecosystem data to international databases and ecosystem reports, helping ensure that Turkey is represented accurately in global startup rankings and analyses.
A few moments from the episode that stayed with me:
→ “Turkey is heaven for pre-seed and seed investment right now. But if you need more than $2 million, things become much harder.”
→ “Turkish founders often think the Turkish market is big enough. That can become a trap.”
→ “You don’t need to be in Silicon Valley to build a unicorn. Mindset matters more than location.”
→ “Many Turkish corporates still prefer building from scratch instead of acquiring startups — even when acquisitions would save them years.”
I also found the discussion around startup ecosystem data surprisingly fascinating:
how investment data is actually collected
why Teknoparks in Turkey are sitting on a treasure trove of data
how global startup databases are often inaccurate for emerging markets
and why reliable ecosystem data matters much more than most people realize
If you follow startups, venture capital, technology, or emerging ecosystems, I think you’ll enjoy this one.
Referenced in the episode
📚 Organizations / Platforms
Crunchbase
PitchBook
CB Insights
Dealroom
Mattermark
DataFox (acquired by Oracle)
Revo Capital
212
Inveo
GlobalTurk
📚 Companies Mentioned
Peak Games
Dream Games
TaleMonster Games
Fimple
Aposto
Paribu
BTC Turk
Thoughts? I’d love to hear them. Just comment on this post.
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Thanks for reading and listening,
Yunus