Within the last 12 mnths we have seen three major internet deals in Turkey

Posted on | March 27, 2008 | No Comments

May 2007: eBay acquired a minority stake in GittiGidiyor.

Dec 2007: Turkish social network Yonja has raised $12.5M in Series A funding from Greywolf Capital Partners and Tiger Global Management, reports PEWire. (Turkish media talks about a $15 million deal with Mynet)

Jan 2008: Xing, the Germany-based European business social network which resembles LinkedIn, had bought Turkish business social network Cember, for about $6.43 million (?4.36 million). (Reuters) – German online business networking company Xing (OBCGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research) has bought Turkey’s cember.net to strengthen its leadership in the Turkish-speaking market, it said in a statement late on Tuesday.
Fast-growing Xing, a competitor to U.S.-based LinkedIn, said it would pay 4.4 million euros ($6.4 million) in stages for cember.net.

These deals are encouraging for the internet industry in Turkey, and will help companies to raise early stage funding more easily. However, investors should be very careful if they don’t have the proper knowledge on both Turkey and the internet. So let me know before you invest in an internet company in Turkey.

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