BV Growth Fund Continues Investments in Early-Stage Technology Companies

ARTICLES
September 23, 2023

Launched at the end of 2020 with its first capital commitments from investors, BV Growth Fund (Inveo Portfolio Boğaziçi Ventures Venture Capital Investment Fund “BVG”) has expanded its portfolio by investing in 26 Turkey-based early-stage technology companies within just 2.5 years.




Launched at the end of 2020 with its first capital commitments from investors, BV Growth Fund (Inveo Portfolio Boğaziçi Ventures Venture Capital Investment Fund “BVG”) has expanded its portfolio by investing in 26 Turkey-based early-stage technology companies within just 2.5 years.

Our goal is to collaborate with successful technology entrepreneurs, create value for them, and quickly reach our targeted number of portfolio companies. On this path, we continue to work on discovering new opportunities and building partnerships with innovative companies in the sector.

Thanks to our experienced team and extensive Venture Partner network, we reviewed a pool of 6,162 startups. From this pool, we held initial meetings with 955 companies and conducted in-depth evaluations on product performance, business plans, and financial projections with 216 of them. We made investment decisions in 32 companies and completed 26 of those investments. In addition, we have extended offers to 6 new companies and aim to finalize these processes by the end of 2023, targeting partnerships with at least 32 portfolio companies.

BV Growth Portfolio Companies and Success Stories

We have made follow-on investments in 13 of the companies in the BV Growth Fund portfolio. By completing our investments before the five-year period, from the first quarter of next year we will focus entirely on supporting companies’ growth strategies, new funding rounds, and exit strategies.

Here are some success stories from our portfolio:

  • Hiwell: Offering safe, personalized, and accessible psychotherapy services via web and mobile apps, Hiwell rapidly scaled with support from BV Growth Fund to become Turkey’s largest online mental health platform. Following a USD 1 million funding round, Hiwell has been growing by 15% monthly, serving over 200,000 users and offering access to more than 600 clinical psychologists. The company has also successfully expanded into new markets.

  • Gulliver’s Games: Developing hypercasual and casual mobile games, Gulliver’s released Restaurant Tycoon in 2022, reaching 500,000 downloads in the hybrid casual category. Their new word puzzle prototype exceeded expectations, leading the team to allocate more resources to the project. They closed a USD 1.5 million round with March Capital and are accelerating development. Their word puzzle game Wordjong is currently in soft launch and preparing for a global release.

  • Artiwise: Leveraging AI to deliver sustainable customer satisfaction, Artiwise is recognized as the top company in Turkey’s “Voice of the Customer” category. After investment, it expanded into new markets including the UK, achieved 2.2x growth since 2022, and successfully completed 6 AI R&D projects. With 100% customer satisfaction, Artiwise has experienced zero churn over the past two years.

  • Craftgate: A one-stop payment orchestration platform for businesses selling online, Craftgate allows management of virtual POS, partnered payment providers, and alternative methods from a single hub. In the last 12 months, it quadrupled its customer base and increased monthly recurring revenue (MRR) 7x, outperforming its financial projections. Craftgate continues integrating global payment methods such as Klarna, Payoneer, and Stripe, while expanding operations in Europe.

Investor Base and Fund Growth

As of September 2023, BV Growth Fund has 148 investors, with the largest being the Turkish Ministry of Treasury and Finance. The investor base includes pension funds, investment funds, family offices, holdings, major technology companies, and individual qualified investors from Turkey, Europe, and the GCC region.

The fund has exceeded its target commitment size of 400M TL, reaching 460M TL by September 2023, and will continue raising commitments for the next 15 months. The fund has already delivered 2.2x value growth and offers an annual USD-based return potential of 32%.

Open to Qualified Investors

BV Growth Fund continues to invest in successful startups with disruptive business models, aiming for high performance. Investments are open only to qualified investors as defined by regulation.