Today saw the announcement of Turkey’s first decacorn, with Softbank Vision Fund and General Atlantic leading the $1.5 billion financing round of Trendyol, bringing the company’s post-money valuation to $16.5 billion. Princeville Capital, ADQ and QIA also joined the round.

To put things in context, this transaction makes Trendyol probably the most valuable business in Turkey and the most valuable private internet company in EMEA. This is an incredible achievement for an 12-year old company.

Trendyol is Turkey’s leading eCommerce platform with over 30m shoppers, 140k active merchants and 1m+ deliveries per day. The company has grown its GMV by ~20x in the last 4 years, reaching ~$10b billion this year. This is a big testament to the size and dynamism of the Turkish market. When we contrast this performance with the difficulty with which Turkish tech companies raise venture capital, this transaction should remind global investors with the opportunity they may be overlooking in the local Turkish market.

I have had the opportunity to observe the Trendyol story very closely. Like many, this is an overnight success that took twelve years of blood, sweat and tears. I would like to extend a well-deserved congratulations to the entire team who built a company that is certain to inspire many bold, ambitious entrepreneurs.