Focus sharpens on venture capital investments by corporates
THE SECOND edition of the Corporate Venture Capital Conference, organized by the Entrepreneurial Institutions Platform (GKP) in collaboration with Özyeğin University and sponsored by Fiba Holding, took place this week under the banner of CVC Bosphorus’24.
Bringing together top executives from the investment world and corporate companies, along with nearly 500 participants from about 250 firms, the conference featured 26 speakers.
Following the opening remarks by İhsan Elgin, the founder of the Entrepreneurial Institutions Platform and entrepreneurship adviser to Özyeğin University, a session featuring Hüsnü Özyeğin, founder and honorary chair of the Fiba Group, and Ömer Mert, CEO and board member of Fibabank, discussed entrepreneurship in the business world.
“In the business world, entrepreneurs typically navigate markets, sharing their business ideas with investors to secure financing. I follow a different approach. I identify successful business leaders who have spent years in professional management and convince them to become entrepreneurs. I call this ‘individual capital venture.’ When I bring the right people together and give them freedom, I know success will follow,” said Özyeğin.
Emphasizing the need for executives with an entrepreneurial and founder perspective in the business world, he said that in a rapidly changing world, the managerial approach satisfied with annual growth of 10%-20% is now outdated.
Özyeğin highlighted that successful entrepreneurship in the business world is also based on education.
“I believe universities need to establish stronger relationships with the outside world. We initiated the first entrepreneurship undergraduate program in Türkiye at Özyeğin University. When we look at the world, we see that future professions are undergoing rapid transformation. Therefore, this year, we are launching an undergraduate program at Özyeğin University aimed at supporting entrepreneurship and focusing on future professions,” he noted.
For his part, Mert discussed the contributions to Fibabank’s vision of digitalization and the value provided to ventures through their investments.
“During the pandemic, we witnessed rapid development in many startups. However, in the current environment, access to money has become much more difficult for ventures. Banks are adopting a cautious approach to providing credit to ventures. At Fibabank, we not only meet the financing needs of ventures but also support their growth processes with our knowledge and experience. We know that providing capital support to ventures is not the end. Our goal is to produce major global players from Türkiye,” he noted.
“The way for Türkiye to produce significant values lies in corporate venture capital firms joining forces and providing serious support to ventures. We call for collaboration to achieve this goal.”
In his speech, Elgin shared data on the corporate venture capital sector in Türkiye, noting that investments from corporations account for almost half of the total investments in the country.
He highlighted the growth of corporate venture capital and the importance of collaboration with other investment firms.
“Corporate venture capital investments have shown a steady increase in Türkiye since 2019. As of the end of 2023, there are 83 corporate venture capital firms. One out of every three investments is made by corporations. Looking at the investment amount, it is observed that approximately half of all investments come from corporate funds. Therefore, corporate venture capital should now be considered not as an auxiliary character but as a main character,” Elgin said.
“Ventures should also learn to work with corporations because corporate venture capital brings more than just money to ventures; it brings serious business experience and connections as well.”