The Galata Business Angels (GBA) is an organization that supplemented by guidance in the formation of Inovent which committed to scouting, mentoring and ﬁnding funding to great young companies from start through a successful exit and that aims to increase the quantity, quality and success of angel investments in Turkey and in doing so create a greater pool of capital for innovative start-up companies.  GBA operates as a not-for-proﬁt organization and acts as a platform where member angel investors and aspiring entrepreneurs meet to exchange ideas about startups and discuss opportunities. GBA also provides access to active national and international networks that enable improved access to follow on capital, markets, and mentoring for emerging businesses.  GBA comprises of executives, entrepreneurs and seasoned angel investors who aid in accelarating innovative, impactful, cutting edge startup companies to market leadership.  The current members of GBA have founded and built world-class companies like Mynet, Airties, Gittigidiyor, Yemeksepeti, Markafoni, Pozitron, Vepa Grup, ReklamZ, DBI, 41-29 and been senior executives at pioneering companies like Apple, eBay, Maxim, Turkcell. They come from a wide array of industry expertise and together create an extensive network of entrepreneurial support. They mentor and coach the entrepreneurs, provide networking and help with team building, strategy and fundraising.

Galata Business Angels

Aslanoba Capital is an early stage investor in tech startups in Turkey and the US. The company invests in startups pursuing disruptive ideas in areas such as marketplaces, e-commerce, mobile, classifieds, content, and SaaS with a consideration of investment between $0.25 million and $2 million. Aslanoba was founded in 2013 and is based in Istanbul, Turkey.

Aslanoba Capital

212 invests in growth-stage tech companies across Turkey, CEE, and MENA. Currently, our fund manages €75 million of committed capital, and 25 investments. Our strategy is to invest in B2B tech solutions that have demonstrated traction, a clear product-market fit, and are ready to scale internationally. ‘Test local, go global’ is 212’s guiding principle. In addition to investing in startups, we put significant effort into mentoring, supporting, and advising our portfolio companies. 212 was founded by a seasoned group of veterans with the common vision of cultivating an eco-system in Turkey and its region. Each of our team members brings to the table a proven track record of success in multi-cultural disciplines in both global corporations and start-ups and an unwavering focus on strategy, operation, and execution.

Wamda Capital is the MENA region's leading venture capital firm investing in exceptional entrepreneurs building the region's most promising high growth technology businesses. We invest both at the growth and seed stages with the aim of taking portfolio companies through successive rounds of financing through to exit.

Wamda Capital

Having infused dynamism, innovation and growth into each of its businesses

Doğan Holding

Peak XV Partners (Formerly Sequoia Capital India & SEA) is a venture capital and growth investment firm investing across India, South East Asia, and beyond. Peak XV has grown to manage over $9bn in capital across 13 funds and invested in over 400 companies, of which ~40 companies have achieved revenues of over $100MM.

Peak XV Partners

Riverwood Capital is a growth-stage technology investment firm that invests in technology companies in need of financial and intellectual capital to scale.

Riverwood Capital

Sequoia is a venture capital focused on energy, financial, enterprise, healthcare, internet, and mobile startups. The firm helps a small number of daring founders build legendary companies. It spurs them to push the boundaries of what’s possible. The firm seeks to invest in all sectors with a focus on energy, financials and financial services, healthcare and healthcare services, Internet, mobile, outsourcing, and technology.

Sequoia Capital

Endeavor Catalyst is the rules-based, co-investment fund of Endeavor, set up to invest exclusively in Endeavor Entrepreneur-led companies and to sustain Endeavor’s long-term operations in a mission-aligned way. Launched in 2012, Endeavor Catalyst has ~$500M+ AUM across four funds and has made 260+ investments to date in 35+ different markets. Today The Endeavor Catalyst portfolio has 53 companies valued at $1B+. Investments include Globant (NYSE:GLOB), Rappi, and Creditas in Latin America; Yemeksepeti.com and Careem in MENA; and Bukalapak and Carro in Indonesia.

Endeavor Catalyst

The QIA was founded by the State of Qatar in 2005 to strengthen the country's economy by diversifying into new asset classes. Building on the heritage of Qatar investments dating back more than three decades, its growing portfolio of long-term strategic investments helps complement the state's wealth in natural resources. Qatar's goal is to become an international center for finance and investment management, a vision shared by its government, people, and institutions. It has a track record of investing in different asset classes, including listed securities, property, alternative assets, and private equity in all the capital markets as well as the newer emerging markets.

Qatar Investment Authority

ESPRO Investment

Esas Private Equity invest in cash-generative, mid to large-sized companies with solid business models. The company's team of investment and operations professionals with industry expertise helps companies expand into new products and markets and improve their operations.

Esas Private Equity

Insider

Insider is a Growth Management Platform (GMP) that helps digital marketers drive growth across the funnel, from Acquisition to Activation, Retention, and Revenue. They leverage real-time predictive segmentation powered by deep Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning capabilities, GMP empowers marketers to deliver personalized journeys across the web, mobile web, mobile apps, and ad channels. Built on a unified data layer, GMP is easy to implement and simple to use, avoiding the need for complex integrations and dependency on IT teams. Insider simplifies the life of digital marketers and helps them drive growth for their brands, with zero marketing waste. The company combines personalization, data, and decision-making engines into one platform to help you orchestrate consistent brand experiences across channels and bridge the gap between online and offline. The AI and ML-powered engines are tailored to solve marketing problems optimize Return on Ad Spend (ROAS), drive conversions and improve product discovery, and generate insights that can turbocharge your personalization program.

<div>Insider is a Turkey-based customer data platform (CDP) that offers personalized and cross-channel solutions through a unified platform for marketing teams. Its CDP allows businesses to gain a comprehensive view of customer interactions, behaviors, interests, and preferences, enabling them to understand and track customer needs. With the help of AI-powered predictive models, Insider lets brands forecast key customer engagement metrics like purchase likelihood, churn probability, and customer lifetime value (CLV). Moreover, Insider allows businesses to create custom conversion predictions tailored to specific customer behaviors, such as cross-selling or form fills. With a range of templates and integrations across multiple channels, Insider's personalization software enables brands to optimize campaigns. As of May 2023, the platform had served 1,200+ brands globally, including Samsung, Santander, Estee Lauder Companies, Singapore Airlines, Toyota, and Gap.&nbsp;</div>

Using AI to automate, enhance and optimize marketing activities

Marketing Automation

Insider Today: Italian reno nightmare

<div>
 
 Insider is a Turkey-based customer data platform (CDP) that offers personalized and cross-channel solutions through a unified platform for marketing teams. Its CDP allows businesses to gain a comprehensive view of customer interactions, behaviors, interests, and preferences, enabling them to understand and track customer needs. With the help of AI-powered predictive models, Insider lets brands forecast key customer engagement metrics like purchase likelihood, churn probability, and customer lifetime value (CLV). Moreover, Insider allows businesses to create custom conversion predictions tailored to specific customer behaviors, such as cross-selling or form fills. With a range of templates and integrations across multiple channels, Insider's personalization software enables brands to optimize campaigns. As of May 2023, the platform had served 1,200+ brands globally, including Samsung, Santander, Estee Lauder Companies, Singapore Airlines, Toyota, and Gap.&nbsp;
 
 
 In January 2023, the company acquired 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/companies/843662">
 MindBehind,
 
 </a>
 a conversational commerce and messaging platform verified by Meta, with the aim of strengthening its conversational solutions. This strategic move allowed Insider to become an official WhatsApp Business Solution Provider (BSP). Leveraging this newfound status, Insider partnered with Meta to launch WhatsApp Commerce, an innovative feature empowering businesses to facilitate engaging and interactive two-way conversations for customers on WhatsApp.
 
 
 The firm claims itself as a leader in providing personalized, cross-channel solutions. AVON, an Insider user, reported notable business improvements including an 11% increase in average order value (AOV) and a 13% boost in click-through rates as a result of implementing Insider's solutions.
 
 
 Funding and financials
 
 
 Insider raised 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/18875">
 USD 105 million in a funding round
 </a>
 led by QIA in May 2023, propelling it toward a projected valuation of USD 2 billion. It planned to use the funds to accelerate its M&amp;A growth strategy, allowing for the expansion and improvement of its product portfolio. The round follows its USD 121 million Series D funding round, which valued the firm at USD 1.22 billion.
 
</div>

<div>
 
 Outbrain is an algorithm-based content recommendation and discovery platform that curates native advertising content from the open web, providing personalized content for brands to increase customer engagement. Outbrain&rsquo;s customers include leading news media outlets such as CNN, MSN, and Sky News, serving more than a billion monthly users (by September 2021). Outbrain also allows content publishers to amplify its reach by supplying content to the platform. As of September 2021, customers could access 7,000+ online content sources including content by the Washington Post, Guardian, and BBC.&nbsp;
 
 
 Outbrain has been a pioneer in the content recommendation space and was the first to introduce an algorithm-based content recommendation in 2008. It was also the first to introduce a self-service platform for content recommendation in 2012. Outbrain has made a series of acquisitions over the years while making enhancements to its product offerings. In May 2021, it tested &ldquo;QualityRatings,&rdquo; a tool that implements quality guidelines for the content featured on its platform while using machine learning and AI to create a more personalized user experience. In April 2022, Outbrain&rsquo;s platform was 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/9907">
 integrated with ID5
 </a>
 to provide a privacy-first customer identification solution. In September 2022, the firm launched 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/13122">
 Keystone
 </a>
 , a business optimization solution for publishers. In November 2021, 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/6992">
 Outbrain acquired vi
 </a>
 , a contextual video intelligence platform for USD 55 million to grow it's CTV and other display ads offerings. 
 
 
 Funding and financials
 
 
 Outbrain&rsquo;s revenue model is structured as a &ldquo;pay per click&rdquo; model with the revenue being shared with publishers of the content. In FY 2022, the firm 
 reported a revenue of USD 992.1 million (a 2% YoY dip). For the 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/16860">
 full year of 2023E,
 </a>
 the firm expected to achieve a minimum Ex-TAC gross profit of USD 237 million and generate an adjusted EBITDA of at least USD 28 million. 
 
 
 Outbrain was listed on the NASDAQ in July 2021, where it raised USD 160 million at a valuation of USD 1.25 billion. Ahead of its listing, Outbrain also raised USD 200 million in the form of senior subordinated secured notes from Baupost Group. Since then the firms share price has fallen steeply, and as of July 2022 the firm was&nbsp; worth USD 300 million, equivalent to a ~75% drop in its value. In response, Outbrain is reported to have 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/11880">
 shed ~3% of its total workforce
 </a>
 . 
 
</div>

Outbrain

<div>
 
 Marin Software is an adTech firm offering a suite of solutions for brands looking to conduct search, social media, and ecommerce advertising. The firm&rsquo;s &ldquo;MarineOne&rdquo; solution enables Brands to integrate their data under a single platform; coupled with machine learning tools, marketers can optimize ad spending across multiple platforms. In the case of search and social media advertising, Brands can increase their visibility across a number of search engines and social media platforms including Google, Facebook, and Apple Search Ads.&nbsp;
 
 
 In recent years the firm has been making enhancements to transform its Marine One Software as a complete marketing campaign management &amp; intelligence solution. In line with the firm expanded its ecommerce advertising solution capabilities by increasing the number of integrations to include Criteo&rsquo;s commerce media platform and Instacart&rsquo;s advertising platform. In 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/12159">
 2022
 </a>
 , the firm rolled out a number of new product and features including 1) MarinOne bidding, the firm's ad bidding marketplace, 2) MarinOne support, to enable advertisers to improve ad performance with multi-edit ad scheduling solutions, 3) social rules engine, to help automate workflows, and 4) 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/15019">
 Budget Optimizer
 </a>
 , an ad budget management solution. More 
 recently, in April 2023, the firm introduced an automation tool 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/17565">
 &ldquo;MarinOne Scripts,&rdquo;
 </a>
 which integrates Python scripting with its MarineOne platform, providing marketers with customized and data-driven solutions to optimize campaigns.&nbsp;
 
 
 Key customers and partnerships
 
 
 As of October 2021, several brands from varied industries, including Nissan, American Eagle outfitters, and Harmony, use the firm&rsquo;s solutions.
 
 
 In 2021, the firm made a number of new initiatives in 2021, including an 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/7635">
 integration with Amazon Ads
 </a>
 and a 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/6973">
 partnership with CitrusAd 
 </a>
 to expand the ecommerce capabilities of its platform. More recently, in January 2023, the company announced an 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/16172">
 integration with Yahoo
 </a>
 to broaden access to programmatic ad content. 
 
 
 Funding and financials
 
 
 Marin Software was listed on the NASDAQ in March 2013, raising USD 105 million and was valued at USD 432 million. However, since then the firm has been experiencing a decline in performance; in 2022, the firm recorded a revenue of 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/16613?industryIds=62">
 USD 20 million (a 18% YoY drop)
 </a>
 compared to the ~USD 100 million revenue in 2016. The reasons analysts cite for this are 1) weaknesses in its search advertising model and 2) not selling digital ads, which is a growth area for lead generation firms.&nbsp;
 
 
 
</div>

Marin Software

<div>
 
 Founded in China, Terminus claims to have the first account-based marketing (ABM) platform that unifies the marketing and sales teams&rsquo; roles under a single platform. Terminus specializes in B2B marketing and, according to the firm, its &ldquo;Terminus Data Studio&rdquo; has one of the largest B2B account databases, which by September 2021, covered more than 70 million businesses. Terminus&rsquo;s customer data platform (CDP) is fully integrated with its marketing automation platform, through which teams can run multi-channel targeted campaigns across many channels including email, ad networks, live chat, and the web. This can then be analyzed with Terminus&rsquo; suite of analytics and attribution tools. In March 2023, the firm 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/17406">
 launched Prospect Engine,
 </a>
 a new data solution, to help users identify high-quality accounts and contacts displaying buying signals. 
 By September 2021, Terminus served more than 1,000 customers, including Salesloft, Foundry, and Quantum Workplace.
 
 
 According to a study done by Forrester (in Q2 2020), Terminus has been recognized among the ABM platform leaders. 
 
 
 Through a series of acquisitions, Terminus has transformed into a marketing cloud platform offering a range of services. Its two latest acquisitions took place within 12 months. In November 2020, it acquired Growflare, a lead generation and account-based intelligence platform catering to B2B startups, followed by B2B CDP Zylotech in September 2021. Terminus hoped to capitalize on these to build the most comprehensive ABM platform on the market.
 
 
 Funding and financials
 
 
 Terminus raised USD 50 million in debt financing from CIBC innovation banking in November 2021. The funding was used to support international expansion, product development, and further acquisitions. In February 2021 when it raised USD 90 million in Series C funding, it was valued at approximately USD 400 million.
 
</div>

Terminus

<div>
 
 Founded in France, Brevo 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/18241">
 (formerly Sendinblue)
 </a>
 began as an email marketing automation platform catering to small and medium-scale businesses (SMB). It has since extended its services to become an all-in-one marketing platform catering to 300,000+ customers across 180 countries by end December 2022. The range of services found on Brevo&rsquo;s platform includes email and SMS marketing, customer relationship management (CRM) tools, landing page creation, and Facebook ad management, among others. In November 2022, the firm launched an 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/14388">
 integrated meetings solution
 </a>
 that brings together scheduling, video conferencing, and payment solutions. In March 2023, the company 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/17462">
 unveiled &ldquo;Conversations&rdquo;
 </a>
 to manage customer conversations across messaging channels in one centralized location.
 
 
 Brevo&rsquo;s platform is compared with other well-known competitors such as Mailchimp and Hubspot and is commended for its live support and fair pricing, making it a strong contender in the SMB space.&nbsp;
 
 
 The company has expanded its product offering through a series of acquisitions during 2021-2022. Brevo acquired three firms in September 2021 for USD 47 million: 1) Metrilo, a provider of customer analytics and marketing services for ecommerce stores, 2) Chatra, a live chat messenger app for increasing online sales, and 3) PushOwl, a customer re-engagement website that uses web-based push notifications. In March 2022, the firm 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/9009">
 acquired MeetFox
 </a>
 , a meeting scheduling and video conferencing platform. In September 2022, the company 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/13360">
 acquired Yodel.io,
 </a>
 an Austrian cloud-based phone system provider, to enable additional customer touchpoints, and reduce the overall digital marketing spend for SMBs. In February 2023, the firm 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/16271?industryIds=62">
 acquired Captain Wallet,
 </a>
 a mobile wallet marketing platform, to broaden its reach internationally. In December 2023, 
 Brevo
 acquired 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/24833">
 WonderPush and Octolis,
 </a>
 two customer interaction platforms, to expand its CRM capabilities.
 &nbsp;
 
 
 Funding and financials&nbsp;
 
 
 Brevo raised USD 160 million in its Series B round in September 2020 with participation from Bridgepoint, Bpifrance, Blackrock, and Partech. The firm planned to utilize the funds to increase its presence in the US, where it has experienced a 100% YoY growth since 2018. 
 
 
 The firm achieved 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/15834">
 USD 100 million in Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR)
 </a>
 at the end of 2022 while maintaining a positive EBITDA position.&nbsp;
 
</div>

Brevo

Acquia provides a digital experience platform (DXP) to support medium to large enterprises that use Drupal, an open-source content management system (CMS) that provides the back-end infrastructure for websites and by September 2021, powered approximately 2.1% of websites on the internet. The core product offered by Acquia is a marketing cloud that provides a full suite of services to manage the customer journey. The platform features a customer data platform (CDP), unifying data across multiple sources; sales automation tools to deliver personalized marketing campaigns across multiple delivery channels; marketing campaign management tools to manage distributed marketing teams; and a content management platform to organize and monitor content.Having been built on the Drupal framework, which does not require any programming skills to implement, Acquia’s marketing cloud claims to be more accessible and agile than enterprise cloud solutions provided by incumbents such as Adobe and Oracle. In 2021, Gartner’s Magic Quadrant report named Acquia a leader in DXP platforms, while a study done by Forrester (in July 2021) found that customers of Acquia’s DXP solutions experienced a payback on their investment in less than six months, generating an average return on investment (ROI) of 589% over three years.Acquia has made several investments and enhancements to its DXP platform. In January 2021, Acquia, in partnership with Commercetools and Lucidworks, launched “Acquia Digital Commerce,” a service for creating personalized digital shopping experiences for customers. The firm has also added a number of self-serve features to its CDP such as <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/11422">“right to erasure” </a>to bolster the privacy and security features of its platform to cater to enterprise users. In May 2024, Acquia announced the launch of its enhanced digital experience platform, <a href="https://">Acquia Digital Experience Optimization (DXO),</a> which optimizes digital marketing spend by improving the performance of digital experiences. In September 2021, Acquia acquired Widen Enterprises, a digital asset management (DAM) and product information management (PIM) software company, for an undisclosed amount. As a result, customers can have a fully integrated experience on the platform, while the acquisition also added a further 700+ customers. In November 2023, the company acquired Monsido, a website accessibility and optimization solution from CivicPlus, to expand its platform capabilities.Key customers and partnershipsBy September 2021, Acquia counted one in four Fortune 500 companies, including Johnson &amp; Johnson, Bayer, and Xerox, among its customers.In June 2022, Acquia <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/11352">partnered with Workato </a>(enterprise-level workflow automation platform) to integrate with Acquia’s CDP to expand enterprise use of the platform. The integration added 100+ technology integrations compatible with Acquia’s marketing cloud.Funding and financialsAcquia was acquired by Vista Equity Partners in September 2019 for USD 1 billion.

Acquia

Firms positioned as an 'all-in-one' marketing platform,  providing a variety of functions across the MarTech stack

Startups providing platforms for planning and managing marketing campaigns.

Startups offering tools for finding and attracting potential customers with targeted ads.

Startups providing tools to automate the execution of marketing campaigns across varied channels.

Startups providing tools for gathering, cleaning and enhancing customer data to provide deep analytics.

Uses AI/ML to enable marketing automation, making it a core part of many companies' products

Metaverse advertising is being explored by AdTech segments for in-game advertising

Personalization tools are mainly used in AdTech and marketing campaign automation

Marketing automation provides measurement and attribution solutions to measure marketing effectiveness

The in-game advertising segment is in development and has a niche relevance to this area

Insider raises USD 105 million to drive acquisition strategy

Samsung Electronics

Samsung’s global partnership with Insider is part of a three-year project to elevate their cross-channel customer experiences to the highest level while eliminating inefficiencies, removing operational complexities and simplifying technology overheads within Samsung’s global marketing function.

Harnessing tech to provide exceptional customer experiences

Customer Service Platforms

Platforms that provide a comprehensive software solution that consolidates various tools and functionalities, including ticketing, case management, knowledge base, live chat, social media management, self-service options, and analytics

Insider

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