When you think of e-commerce, you think of Amazon. The Jeff Bezos founded company has become one of the biggest conglomerates on the planet, giving rise to a whole new market that has now been filled to the brim with multibillion dollar organizations like India’s Flipkart. In the face of this behemoth, smaller companies have also been able to carve out a piece of the pie, just like Turkey’s Trendyol. Today, led by the Amazon of China-Alibaba, the company has been able to raise $1.5Bn at a massive $16.5Bn valuation.
The round was co-led by General Atlantic, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, as well as Princeville Capital and sovereign wealth funds, ADQ (UAE) and the Qatar Investment Authority. It should also be noted that this marks Softbank’s first investment in Turkey, showing that the country might be ready for a growing startup culture.
Trendyol, one of the biggest e-commerce companies in the still open for grabs market of Turkey, has attracted foreign investments time and again and serves more than 30 million shoppers today. Moreover, it delivers almost 1million packages everyday, showing vast potential for investors who want to get into this fledgling market.
Now, it plans to use these funds to support domestic and international growth, according to founder Demet Suzan Mutlu. This means that soon, Trendyol might enter into neighboring countries as well, with the opportunity to capture a vastly untapped market.
“In particular, Trendyol will continue its investment in nationwide infrastructure, technology and logistics, accelerate digitalization of Turkish SMEs,” said the founder.
This funding also makes Trendyol Turkey’s only decacorn, providing it an opportunity to become a giant in the EMEA region in the coming years.
The shift to online shopping has benefited every e-commerce company on the planet, and this trend is apparent in Trendyol as well. This new funding, as well as the decacorn status, will not only help it compete better against competitors, but also fuel the interest of global investors, who might gain new confidence in the Turkish startup market.
