The protocol process has started for five funds within the scope of the Venture Capital Support Program (Tech-InvesTR), these funds will provide funding worth TL 628 million at the initial phase with the final amount to reach TL 1.1 billion, Industry and Technology Minister Mustafa Varank said yesterday. The aim is to support 148 early-stage technology-based start-ups in Turkey in the next five years, the minister added.

The venture capital investments in the world exceeded $251 billion last year, Varank stated that this amount remained at $59 million in Turkey, the minister said in a statement to Anadolu Agency (AA). Emphasizing that venture funds are needed in order to commercialize research and development (R&D) products and bring them into the economy, the minister recalled that the Ministry of Treasury and Finance and the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK) implemented the Tech-InvesTR program last year in order to increase the number of these funds and to create a sustainable venture capital ecosystem in Turkey. Explaining that TÜBİTAK started Tech-InvesTR call with the start of the program, Varank stated that the funds planned to be supported by TÜBİTAK were selected and reported to the Ministry of Treasury and Finance in the first place.

Varank indicated that the Treasury and Finance Ministry had determined the venture capital funds to which they would commit funding under the program, continuing: "The protocol process has been initiated for five funds entitled to benefit from the Tech-InvesTR Program. Following the finalization of the protocol studies, the Ministry of Finance and Treasury will sign fund participation agreements with the funds and TÜBİTAK will sign project support agreements with the university institutions that will participate in these funds simultaneously."

Goal is to create global startups

Varank underlined that transfer offices and technology development zones from 12 different universities will participate in these five funds, adding that up to 50% of the participation shares of these organizations will be granted by TÜBİTAK.

The minister remarked that the funds to be established will be attended by the Ministry of Treasury and Finance, nine technology development zones and three technology transfer offices as well as domestic and foreign investors.

Varank pointed out that these funds will enable technology transfer offices, technoparks and research infrastructures to gain experience in venture capital, adding: "The perspective of commercialization will be improved in our regions where R&D works are carried out. Our goal is to create globalized start-ups."

The five funds in which Treasury and Finance Ministry will participate include 1,500 Startups Istanbul Annex, Arz Gayrimenkul ve Girişim Sermayesi Portföy Yönetimi, Collective Spark Fund, Diffusion Capital Partners II and Gedik Portföy Yönetim.