New generation e-commerce infrastructure ikas announced that it received an investment of $20 million in the Series A investment round led by World Bank institutions IFC and Re-Pie Portfolio. The investment was recorded as the highest single investment amount made by the World Bank in startups in Turkiye.
Turkiye’s startup ecosystem closed the first quarter of 2024 with news from the e-commerce technologies sector. New generation e-commerce infrastructure ikas completed the Series A investment round led by IFC (International Finance Corporation) and Re-Pie Portfolio, one of the World Bank institutions, with $20 million.
Sharing his views on the investment, ikas Founding Partner and CEO Mustafa Namoglu said, “In just 2 years, we have become one of the most important players in the e-commerce infrastructure market in Turkiye. With this investment, our aim is to make Turkish SMEs more competitive abroad and to become sector leaders in Europe and other developing markets.”
Highest single investment from IFC to Turkish startup
The $20 million investment received by ikas was the highest investment made by IFC, which has been supporting private sector development in Turkiye for more than 50 years and invested approximately $11 billion in the last decade alone, in a Turkish technology startup. The other leader of the Series A financing round stood out as Re-Pie Portfolio, which has a portfolio of more than ₺54 billion by 2024 and supports Turkiye’s leading enterprises.
Stating that Turkiye is one of IFC’s biggest markets, IFC Turkiye and Central Asia Regional Director Wiebke Schloemer said: “As IFC, we aim to support both the manufacturing sector, trade and exports, especially through export-oriented production companies and projects. ikas offers Turkiye’s SMEs and enterprises that are most suitable for opening up to the global market all the features, modules and tools they need on a single and modern platform.
“The vision of ikas, which introduces Turkiye’s promising small and medium-sized businesses to the digital economy, exactly matches the goals of IFC.”
Re-Pie Portfolio Chairman of the Board of Directors Dr. Emre Camlibel: “As Re-Pie Portfolio, we invest in startups with high growth potential, technology and innovation-oriented business models and continue to grow our portfolio. With this investment made by the GSYF (venture capital investment fund) to which we issued, ikas, which opened an office in Germany at the end of 2022, is rapidly moving towards its goal of becoming one of the leading brands in Europe in its sector by 2030.”
ikas is among Turkiye’s 50 fastest growing technology companies
ikas, the new generation e-commerce platform that enables SMEs and entrepreneurs to open e-commerce sites without the need for technical knowledge, was selected for the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 program in 2023 and became one of the 50 fastest growing technology companies in Turkiye. ikas, wchich enables SMEs and entrepreneurs to sell to the whole world by offering the opportunity to manage e-export processes, received a total seed investment of $3.5 million in April 2022, with the participation of QNBeyond Ventures, 500 Global, Revo Capital, Oyak Investment, Finberg and other important investors. The company, which announced many new features and products in this process, also supports e-commerce startups in increasing their sales with the integrated marketing tools it offers.
The average age of the team is only 28
Stating that they support the international success of SMEs in Turkiye in the fields of e-commerce and e-export and that they gained a significant market share in this process, ikas Founding Partner and CEO Mustafa Namoglu concluded his evaluations with the following statements:
“We will use the new financing entirely to accelerate our overseas growth. Although we are very excited about this investment round, it does not change the fact that we are still at the beginning of the road and have a lot of work to do. As ikas, one of our biggest goals is to show everyone what this young Turkish company, whose team’s average age is only 28, can do abroad. We are grateful to our team, investors and all our supporters, especially ikas users, who trusted us on this path.”
Source: Egirisim / Prepared by Irem Yildiz