Rasmal, Bilişim Vadisi forge Gulf-Türkiye startup link

Rasmal Ventures and Türkiye’s Bilişim Vadisi have signed a three-year cooperation agreement aimed at creating a structured route for startups, investors and companies between Türkiye and Gulf markets.

The memorandum of understanding, signed in Istanbul, covers joint innovation programmes, investor and business-to-business matchmaking, knowledge exchange, capacity building and the movement of startups, specialists and networks between the two regions. The partnership also involves Terminal Istanbul, Bilişim Vadisi’s flagship entrepreneurship hub being developed at the former Atatürk Airport.

The agreement gives Turkish technology companies a channel for pursuing Gulf investment and market access, while providing Gulf investors with closer access to Türkiye’s startup, engineering and industrial ecosystem. The institutions said specific programmes and activities would be developed over the coming months, with founders, investors and corporates forming the principal focus.

Soumaya Ben Beya Dridje, a partner at Qatar-based Rasmal Ventures, said the arrangement was intended to connect Türkiye’s startup sector with pools of long-term Gulf capital at an ecosystem level. She said it could give Turkish founders greater access to Gulf Cooperation Council markets while exposing regional investors to engineering talent in Türkiye.

The tie-up builds on Rasmal Ventures’ existing activity in Türkiye. The venture capital firm has invested in Turkish technology businesses, including fintech platform TeamSec. Rasmal and Deniz Ventures co-led a $7.6 million investment in TeamSec announced in 2025, an early-stage financing round intended to support artificial intelligence and data analytics development and expansion in the Middle East and North Africa.

Rasmal has also backed Türkiye-rooted travel-connectivity company Roamless, leading its $12 million Series A financing, according to the firm. The new memorandum differs from individual investments by establishing an institutional framework through which companies and investors can be introduced across markets.

İsmail Erkam Tüzgen, chief executive of Bilişim Vadisi, said the partnership would extend Terminal Istanbul’s connections into Gulf capital markets and create opportunities for companies operating within its ecosystem. Bilişim Vadisi describes itself as one of Türkiye’s largest technology development zones and says it hosts more than 800 technology companies.

Terminal Istanbul is being developed as a large-scale technology and entrepreneurship centre at the former airport site. Türkiye’s Industry and Technology Minister Mehmet Fatih Kacır said at an ecosystem gathering there on September 25 that the project would occupy about 200,000 square metres and accommodate thousands of technology companies, alongside incubators, accelerators, mentoring programmes, prototyping facilities and research laboratories.

Kacır said the government aims to have 100,000 technology startups emerge from Türkiye by 2030 and for the combined valuation of the country’s billion-dollar technology companies, known locally as Turcorns, to reach $100 billion. He said public resources had helped generate a venture-fund pool of 130 billion Turkish lira, supporting investments totalling 175 billion lira in 1,091 technology ventures.

Rasmal Ventures was among the investment and technology organisations represented at the September Terminal Istanbul ecosystem gathering. More than 60 institutions and organisations joined a cooperation framework at that event, which brought together technology companies, industrial groups, venture funds, technoparks and other ecosystem participants.

The Qatar-based fund manager was launched under the Qatar Financial Centre regulatory framework in 2023, with an investment strategy focused on technology companies and opportunities across the Middle East and North Africa as well as selected international markets. Its original investment mandate included areas such as financial technology, business software, artificial intelligence, climate and energy technology, and supply-chain logistics.

The signing was announced during GITEX Türkiye in Istanbul, placing the initiative alongside efforts to internationalise the country’s technology ecosystem. Terminal Istanbul had earlier brought Rasmal together with technology groups and investment organisations at its September ecosystem meeting. The hub’s stated model is to combine startups, investors, corporate research and development teams and other technology participants, giving the new partnership an existing platform for exchanges and matchmaking activities.