Support from GİSED for SPK's Exception: The Entrepreneurial Ecosystem is Strengthening

Critical Exception for Venture Capital Investment Funds

The Capital Markets Board (SPK) recently raised the financial thresholds in the definitions of professional and qualified investors through its regulations. However, venture capital investment funds (VCIF) were exempted from this change; thus, the lower limit for qualified investors in VCIFs remains at 1 million TL.

Evaluation from GİSED President Kamil Kılıç

Kamil Kılıç, the Chairman of the Venture Capital Funds Association (GİSED), considers this step an important balancing factor for early-stage enterprises' access to finance. Kılıç notes that the regulation establishes a delicate balance between the maturation of capital markets and the needs of the entrepreneurship ecosystem.

Kılıç states, “It is understandable that SPK has increased the financial thresholds in investor definitions in terms of the maturation of the market structure. However, exempting VCIFs from this increase is a strategic decision for Turkey’s innovation capacity,” he says.

Investor Diversity and Healthy Growth

Kılıç emphasizes that the current structure allows individual investors to participate in ventures, thereby contributing to the expansion of the ecosystem. He expresses that higher thresholds could reduce the number of investors, making it more difficult for early-stage ventures to find resources, and states that maintaining the existing structure supports both investor diversity and the healthy growth of the ecosystem.

Benefits of Technology Ventures

Kılıç indicates that maintaining the qualified investor threshold as a protective policy sustains the necessary access to finance for technology-oriented ventures such as artificial intelligence, fintech, defense, e-mobility, and agri-tech, expecting more development in these areas.

The Future of Venture Capital Funds

Kılıç reminds that the global size of venture capital is approximately 5 trillion dollars, emphasizing that for Turkey to capture a larger share of this market, the size of VCIFs must reach at least 50 billion dollars in the medium term. He adds that GİSED will continue to work collaboratively with all stakeholders to grow the entrepreneurship ecosystem and strengthen the VCIF infrastructure.