The year 2025 began as a turbulent yet transformative period for the entrepreneurship ecosystem, both Türkiye and globally. Macroeconomic pressures, funding challenges, and geopolitical uncertainties have fostered a cautious atmosphere within the ecosystem, while new opportunities gaining momentum have emerged in certain sectors.
In Türkiye’s entrepreneurship ecosystem, the first quarter of 2025 saw the lowest investment levels in recent years, with just 49 funding rounds totaling $58 million. At the heart of this decline lie structural financing hurdles encountered when moving from the seed stage to Series A/B. In the first three months, only four Series A/B deals closed. Notably, the gaming and fintech sectors accounted for the bulk of these investments, whereas AI ventures have yet to attract the expected level of interest.
According to StartupsWatch data, during the first half of 2025 Türkiye secured $210 million across 90 funding rounds. Compared to the 129 rounds and $470 million raised in the second half of 2024, this represents a sharp drop both in deal count and total volume. A quarter-by-quarter breakdown shows that after a $470 million haul in Q4 2024, investment totaled just $210 million in H1 2025—a roughly 55% decrease. While this reflects the impact of market uncertainties, there remains potential for recovery in the months ahead.
If we look at the sectors attracting the most investment, the data show that the gaming sector maintained its lead with $26 million, fintech ventures received $18.1 million, and AI-focused startups pulled in $6.1 million in total. In particular, startups backed by the BiGG Fund stood out for their early-stage activity in artificial intelligence. During this period, BiGG emerged as the most active public support mechanism.
Following the 2024 regulatory amendments, the number of Venture Capital Investment Funds (GSYF) rose to 481, with a combined target size of approximately $1.1 billion. The growth in both GSYF and corporate venture capital (CVC) vehicles over recent years reinforces this trend. However, as of the first quarter of 2025, both GSYFs and CVCs have seen declines in the number and share of investment agreements, indicating that these funds are pursuing more selective investment strategies.
As of Q1 2025, Türkiye hosts 481 Venture Capital Investment Funds targeting a total of around $1.1 billion. A significant portion of these funds is not actively deploying capital, opting instead to focus on later-stage rather than early-stage ventures.
In the first quarter of 2025, the share of funding going to women founders declined. While BiGG-backed projects saw that share climb as high as 34%, it fell back to 18% in 2025—potentially a sign that gender-based inequalities are resurging in the startup world. Additionally, 62% of all investment went to Istanbul-based ventures, with Ankara, İzmir, and Antalya receiving comparatively smaller slices.
Meanwhile, Türkiye marked two landmark exits in Q1 2025. DCP’s portfolio company Burgeon was sold to France’s Laboratoires Vivacy—recorded as the country’s first “deeptech dragon exit.” And Kazakh tech firm Kaspi.kz acquired Hepsiburada for $1.1 billion, one of the region’s most significant M&A deals.
On the global stage, venture-capital investments in H1 2025 reached $113 billion, buoyed by OpenAI’s $40 billion mega-round. However, the bulk of that total came from just a handful of large transactions; if you strip out those mega-deals, overall deal volume either stagnated or fell. That, too, underscores that a cautious mood still prevails in the market.
Early-stage investments in particular have shown a global weakening trend. In Q1 2025, early-stage funding amounted to just $24 billion—the lowest total of the past five quarters. By contrast, late-stage investments surged to around $81 billion, a year-on-year increase of 147%. Average deal sizes also climbed, reaching $3.4 million for seed rounds and $270 million for late-stage rounds.
Regionally, North America further solidified its dominance by attracting 73% of total investment, up from 59% in 2024. Europe experienced a steadier pace, with roughly $12.6 billion invested. Meanwhile, Asia saw a 40% drop in funding, and emerging markets such as Central and Eastern Europe likewise declined, underscoring once again that global investment flows remain heavily concentrated in the U.S.
In terms of sectoral distribution, AI ventures continue to stand out. In Q1 2025, over 50 percent of VC investment went to AI-based startups. Companies such as OpenAI, Anthropic, and Groq each raised funding in the billion-dollar range, but investor interest has also noticeably shifted toward deep-tech fields like robotics, defense technologies, and biotechnology. According to surveys from Q2 2025, 6.7 percent of investors are focusing on deep tech, while 6.3 percent are targeting AI—signaling that investment priorities are beginning to diversify. Alongside AI and deep tech, climate tech also drew significant attention in the first half of 2025, driven in large part by U.S. and Europe-based funds increasingly allocating capital to sustainability-focused opportunities.
However, this concentration carries risks of its own. The intense enthusiasm for AI has led some experts to warn of a potential “investment bubble,” while innovative projects in other sectors face reduced visibility and diminished chances of securing funding. As a result, global funds adopting more balanced and inclusive strategies—particularly to sustain early-stage innovation—will be critical to ensuring long-term ecosystem health.
In 2025, geopolitical developments and economic uncertainties have also been key factors shaping the investment environment. In Europe, emerging regulations on artificial intelligence have slowed down funding processes, while interest-rate policies in the U.S. have redefined investors’ appetite for risk. Moreover, trade policies and tariffs inherited from the Trump administration have become direct determinants of investment decisions for tech ventures.
In light of all these developments, the second half of 2025 could prove to be a critical period for global entrepreneurship. Whether deepening sectoral concentration will continue, whether early-stage funding will recover, and how geopolitical risks will be managed will all serve as strategic drivers for entrepreneurs, investors, and policymakers alike. The main factors likely to shape the investment climate in H2 2025 include the U.S. Federal Reserve’s interest-rate decisions, the implementation timeline of the European Union’s AI regulations, and the level of technology investment flowing from Gulf-region funds. These dynamics may prompt the entrepreneurship ecosystem to reposition itself both regionally and globally.
References:
Crunchbase. (2025). Startup Investment Charts Q1 2025. Crunchbase News. https://news.crunchbase.com/venture/startup-investment-charts-q1-2025
Startups.watch. (2025). 2025 Q1 Turkish Startup Ecosystem Data.
Bain & Company. (2025). Global Venture Capital Outlook – Q1 Snap Chart.
VC Lab. (2025, April 8). Q2 2025 Venture Trends Survey Results. https://govclab.com/2025/04/08/q2-2025-venture-trends-results
Vestbee. (2025). CEE VC Funding Report Q1 2025. https://www.vestbee.com/blog/articles/vc-funding-in-cee-report-q1-2025
Wired. (2025). Investors Worry Trump’s Tariffs Could Cause a ‘World of Hurt’ for Startups. Condé Nast.
Financial Times. (2025). The VC Industry Needs a Geopolitical Reboot.
Business Insider. (2025). VC Hopes Fade Amid Market Instability. Insider Inc.
Axios. (2025). Global M&A Deal Volume Rises to $1.89 Trillion in Q2. https://www.axios.com/newsletters/axios-pro-rata-cdd42967-823c-4216-9ae2-b9148cdc0b3e
