Bogazici Ventures to establish three pre-IPO VC funds

The three vehicles will have a combined size of USD 17m and will be structured as single- and dual-asset funds. They will have pre-defined targets, which are all late-stage, pre-IPO companies based in Turkey, Ozistek said.

Its biotech fund will raise USD 3m and is expected to close in three months; the gaming one will seek USD 4m and could close in six months; while the fintech vehicle will look to raise USD 10m by the end of this year, he said.

Private placement memorandums (PPM) are yet to be circulated, as Bogazici Ventures is looking to have the deals structured prior to reaching out to the potential investors, he added.

Putting together the investments take longer than raising equity for the funds, Ozistek said, adding that PPMs for the biotech and gaming vehicles are expected to be sent to the investors by the end of this month.

Fund structure
The funds will be domiciled in Turkey and their lawyer is Turunc, Ozistek said. They will have a 5-year lifespan with a 3-year extension.

The vehicles will have a flexible structure and minimum subscription will be USD 50,000, Ozistek said. The GP’s contribution will be around 1%, whilst management fee will be 1%, with a 25% carry rate and 3% hurdle.

Potential investors are pension funds, conglomerates, corporate VCs and high-net-worth individuals. They will mostly be from Turkey, besides Middle East and Europe.

The VC is still studying the potential destinations of listings, including Istanbul (Borsa Istanbul), Canada and Norway (Nasdaq Nordic). It could conduct the first gaming IPO in Istanbul in 2023, Ozistek said.

Bogazici Ventures has 25 employees and plans to increase it to 32-34 by the year-end with the new funds.

Portfolio
Bogazici Ventures’ funds include BV Global and BV Growth, besides three private funds: Gaming I, Single LP Fund, and an Accelerator Fund. It counts 30 startups in its portfolio and expects to increase its assets under management to USD 80m by the end of the year, after establishing its new pre-IPO funds.

Its geography-agnostic BV Global Fund has 18 portfolio companies and is closed for investments.

Turkey-focused BV Growth Fund has 12 portfolio companies and aims to invest in a total of 60. The fund has a hard cap of TRY 400m (around USD 28) and saw its first close in December 2020 with TRY 270m (USD 19m). It expects a final close by the end of the year, Ozistek said.

The sponsor plans to conduct five to six investments in March and more than 20 deals this year, Ozistek said. Some 15 of them will be from Growth Fund and the remaining from the new funds. It expects to deploy USD 8m-9m from the Growth Fund and a total of USD 26m-27m in total this year.

Among the startups in its portfolio are Protranslate, Tarentum, Mafia Games, Hiwell, BarakaTech, UGC90 and Fiber Games, Ozistek noted.

• Tweet  
• Facebook  
• LinkedIn  
• Google plus  
• Send to  

• Topics
• Venture
• GPs
• Fundraising
• CEE
• Turkey
• IPO