Turkey’s Startup Accelerator Ecosystem: Overview of Existing Resources and How They Compare with 1Mby1M

Turkey’s accelerator ecosystem is growing rapidly, with Istanbul serving as its hub. Startups raised $1.4 billion in 2024, making Turkey one of Europe’s fastest-rising ecosystems. 

Turkey’s Startup Accelerator Ecosystem: Why 1Mby1M Is a Game Changer

The global startup ecosystem has embraced accelerators as essential infrastructure. They provide mentorship, network access, validation, and often funding to help founders navigate the early, fragile stages of building companies. In emerging ecosystems like Turkey, accelerators are even more vital — they serve as community hubs and gateways to international capital.

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Cem Sertoglu of Earlybird Venture Capital (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: What does UI Path do? Cem Sertoglu: They are the leading robotics process automation software company. They help large enterprises with complex legacy backend systems to automate a lot of the functions. These are usually systems that cannot integrate and talk to each other. Good examples are functions like claims processing for insurance

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1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Cem Sertoglu of Earlybird Venture Capital (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: I know you read some of my writings. I’m a huge proponent of bootstrapped entrepreneurship. Having worked in this ecosystem for all these years, I’ve observed the development of different ecosystems in different parts of the world. Bootstrapping happens to be one of the really important ways that ecosystems come up. You get

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1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Cem Sertoglu of Earlybird Venture Capital (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: What do you see? Is it B2B or B2C? Where is the sweet spot of your entrepreneurs? Cem Sertoglu: We have two very distinct strategies that we focus on. The first is what we call local champions. These are focused on large markets. We would probably back these companies only in markets like

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1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Cem Sertoglu of Earlybird Venture Capital (Part 1)

Responding to a popular request, we are now sharing transcripts of our investor podcast interviews in this new series. The following interview with Cem Sertoglu, Earlybird Venture Capital was recorded in October 2017.  Cem Sertoglu is Partner at Earlybird Venture Capital, based in Turkey. Cem brings the spotlight on Turkey and the Eastern and Central European startup

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The Post-American World

I just finished reading Fareed Zakaria’s The Post American World. It explores the ‘rise of the rest’ – China, India, Brazil, Russia, Indonesia, Turkey – and America’s role in this rather more balanced world where it no longer has undisputed hegemony.

In The Shadows Of Iraq: Qubad Talabani (Part 8)

If you have read much of world news lately, you will notice there has been ongoing tension between the Kurdish region and Turkey. Reflecting back on the stability issues, this must be diffused in order to allow significant external investment to take place. SM: How do you answer the questions regarding the recent threat of

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