Istanbul Venture Capital Initiative (iVCi), founded in 2007, is Turkey’s first ever dedicated fund of funds and co-investment programme. The investors in iVCi are the Small and Medium Industry Development Organisation of Turkey (KOSGEB), the Technology Development Foundation of Turkey (TTGV), the Development Bank of Turkey (TKB), Garanti Bank, National Bank of Greece Group (NBG) and the European Investment Fund (EIF). EIF is the adviser to iVCi.
iVCi leverages on the experience of EIF, the European Union’s specialised financial body for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and the risk capital arm of the European Investment Bank Group.
The mission of iVCi is to provide access to finance to Turkish companies by being a catalyst for the development of the venture capital industry in Turkey through investments in independently-managed funds and co-investments. This builds on the vision that Istanbul shall be become a crossroad location for the venture capital industry in South East Europe and Central Asia by the year 2020.
As at 31 July 2011, iVCi has signed five commitments amounting to EUR 80 million. Two further signatures amounting EUR 32.5 million are envisaged during the second half of 2011 bringing the total portfolio to seven funds and EUR 112.5 million committed to Turkish venture capital.
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