08.06.2022
Turkey's leading participation finance institution Kuveyt Türk has invested 70 million TL in Lonca Venture Capital Investment Fund, which was established by its 100 percent subsidiary KT Portfolio. As part of the promotional event with the participation of Kuveyt Türk’s Executive Vice President of Retail and Private Banking Mehmet Oral, and General Manager of KT Portfolio Hamit Kütük, 6 startups within the Lonca GSYF explained the ideas they developed and the progress reached to the participants.
Continuing to stand by the entrepreneurs and contribute to the country's economy by supporting innovative ideas, Kuveyt Türk made an investment of 70 million TL in the Lonca Venture Capital Investment Fund, which was established by its 100 percent subsidiary KT Portfolio. At the event, where Kuveyt Türk’s Executive Vice President of Retail and Private Banking Mehmet Oral presented a check worth TL 70 million to KT Portfolio General Manager Hamit Kütük, 6 startups in the Lonca Venture Capital Investment Fund (Lonca GSYF) shared their ideas and progress with the participants.
“We help our young entrepreneurs to make their dreams come true”
Making evaluations as part of the event, Kuveyt Türk’s Executive Vice President of Retail and Private Banking Mehmet Oral said, "We strive to be on the side of young entrepreneurs by supporting innovative ideas. Through our Lonca Entrepreneurship Center, which we established in 2017, we support entrepreneurs with technology-oriented and scalable business ideas to transform their project ideas into commercial activities with a sustainable model. In a short time, the Lonca managed to become one of the most effective incubation centers and startup acceleration programs in Turkey. In the six years we have left behind, we have graduated 60 startups from the Lonca. We help our young people to make their dreams come true by supporting startups with the Lonca Venture Capital Investment Fund, established by KT Portfolio. We made a new investment of 70 million TL in the Lonca Venture Capital Investment Fund, in which we invested 5 million TL in the first stage, in order to be more supportive of our ventures. I hope that we will reap the fruits of this investment as soon as possible by witnessing the progress our entrepreneurs will make in their projects. We will continue our efforts to put Lonca GYSF into the service of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in a structure that includes qualified individual and institutional investors from Turkey and abroad.”
“We offer different investment tools to our private banking customers”
Stating that Kuveyt Türk meets the investment and financing needs of its customers with the widest range of products with its "private banking" service model, Deputy General Manager Mehmet Oral said, “As part of our private banking services, our customers may use financing at affordable rates and efficiently use their savings in different investment instruments. With the first Islamic portfolio management company in Turkey, KT Portfolio, which we established in 2015 to expand our product range, we strive to offer many mutual fund products to our private banking customers. At this point, KT Portfolio and Lonca GSYF play a very important role. With KT Portfolio, we not only support our country's entrepreneurial ecosystem, but also invest in the fund we have created. We offer our customers a special banking experience with our widest range of investment instruments and products, including qualified sukuk issuances.”
“We are expanding our product range and growing with the strength we get from our customers”
General Manager of KT Portföy Hamit Kütük said:“ As KT Portfolio, we rank 12th among more than 50 portfolio management companies in the sector, with a fund size of 13 billion TL. We are the largest company that manages its funds completely by adhering to the principles of participation finance and with the strength we get from our customers, we both expand our product range rapidly and continue to grow. Through Teknogirişim GSYF, which we established within KT Portfolio in 2018, we supported 7 companies that offer innovative products and services by using technology effectively in different sectors, and enterprises with high potential to provide added value and qualified employment by investing in 10 rounds. The successful performance of the companies we invested in at Teknogirişim GSYF and the demands of our entrepreneurs prompted us to establish funds to invest in startups at the early stage as well as at the growth stage. For this purpose, we established the Lonca GSYF in 2021. In addition to the 5 million TL investment in the first stage, the Lonca GSYF became stronger with Kuveyt Türk's new 70 million TL investment. In the next 4-5 years, we plan to make early-stage and then growth capital investments in technology-oriented scalable companies.