Within the scope of the TARS Venture Capital Investment Fund, a strategic cooperation has been established between MÜSİAD and LETVEN CAPITAL, MÜSİAD being Türkiye's most powerful and most widespread capital platform on a global scale.

The online press conference held in order to announce the scope and details of the cooperation took place today with the participation of MÜSİAD President Abdurrahman Kaan and LETVEN CAPITAL General Manager Kamil Kılıç.

We Believe That Momentum Will Turn Positive as of the Last Quarter of the Year

Speaking at the program, President Abdurrahman Kaan shared a brief assessment of the quarantine period brought by the pandemic and of its aftermath. Pointing out that Türkiye grew by 4.5 percent in the first quarter of the year, Kaan stated that this figure would decline in the second quarter owing also to the effect of the quarantine period. Kaan said, “We anticipate that the support provided to the markets will become even more evident in the coming period, also thanks to the normalization process that began on 1 June, and that momentum in the Turkish economy will turn positive as of the last quarter of the year.”

The Agriculture and Food Sectors Have Strategic Importance in Our 2023 Targets

Noting in his speech that the agriculture and food sectors are of great importance for the Turkish economy, Kaan said that the agriculture and food sector has strategic importance for our country to be able to reach the level of USD 150 billion in production and USD 40 billion in exports that it has set within the scope of its 2023 targets. Kaan said, “With 2.2 million producers and more than 45,000 small or large-scale companies, Türkiye has been a net exporter in the agriculture and food sector for the last 20 years and ranks 21st in the world with an average annual export growth rate of %7.5. Today, large companies holding a %2 share produce %45 of all agricultural and food products. In the İstanbul Chamber of Industry (İSO) list of Türkiye's Top 500 Industrial Enterprises, food ranks first with 100 companies, and the net sales of these companies amount to TRY 143.5 billion. The sector provides 5 million jobs, and %12 of exports are realized through agricultural products.”

The Target Is to Raise Exports to USD 180 Billion in the Next 10 Years

President Kaan stated that they support LETVEN CAPITAL in order to serve as a lifeline for Türkiye to raise its exports from USD 18 billion to USD 180 billion in the next 10 years and to transform 2,000 agriculture and food companies into SMEs and large-scale companies.

Also providing information about the projects MÜSİAD has prepared for technology and innovation, Kaan said, “We regard this cooperation as one of the fruits yielded by the ‘Renewal’ process that our MÜSİAD has put into practice. Through such comprehensive projects of ours, in which our MÜSİAD brands will take an active part as the final stage of our renewal process, we aim to present work of high added value to the country's economy. Our brand, which we define as MÜSİAD FUTURE (Future)will make its presence felt as an effective player in Türkiye's new road map in the field of agricultural and rural development, with the slogan “the business models of the future and the sectors of the future”. I would also like to take this opportunity to announce that in the very near future we will present to you yet another project of our MÜSİAD FUTURE brand.”
Kaan concluded his remarks by calling on all stakeholders, primarily MÜSİAD members, to invest in the TARS fund.

LETVEN CAPITAL General Manager Kamil Kılıç, for his part, emphasized that venture capital investment funds investing in the fields of agriculture, food and technology have made USD 100 billion of investments in nearly 5,500 ventures over the last 7 years.

“The World Aims to Develop New Business Models by Collecting Data with Billions of Sensors in the Near Future”

Kılıç said, “The world is focused on presenting the most accurate product to the consumer in an optimum manner by enriching data, on preventing the loss and waste of the product, on managing online supply-demand systems through smart warehouses, and on delivering the product directly from the producer to the market or to the consumer with driverless vehicles and drone transport. This situation will make it compulsory for the agriculture and food value chain to be integrated into the global production and consumption ecosystem. In an environment in which food demand is increasing, agricultural land is decreasing and the effect of climate change grows day by day, the world aims to develop new business models by collecting and processing data with sensors whose number will exceed billions in the near future, for the sake of sustainable food and food security.”

We Aim to Produce 1 Unicorn in This Field

Kılıç made the following statements regarding the targets set within the scope of the TARS Venture Capital Investment Fund:

With the TARS Venture Capital Investment Fund, we aim to commercialize at least 10 patents or innovations, to bring each of 5 start-ups to a valuation level of at least TRY 50 million, to invest in 15 companies by contacting %10 of the enterprises within the agriculture and food ecosystem, to ensure that at least %50 of the turnover of %40 of the companies in the portfolio consists of export revenue, and to produce 1 unicorn from Türkiye in this field.

With the LETVEN CAPITAL TARS Fund we also aim to invest TRY 200 million within 2 years in the fields we group as production technologies, namely Agricultural Biotechnology, Farm Management Software, Robotics and Automation Technology, Bioenergy, Biomaterials, Supply Chain Technologies, Agricultural Industry Marketplaces, Innovative and Functional Food products, and in the fields we group as service technologies, namely In-Store Retail and Restaurant Technologies, Restaurant Marketplaces, e-Market, Home and Cooking Technology, Online Restaurants and Meal Kits, and Financial Technologies in Agriculture.”

Pointing out that joining forces with MÜSİAD, Türkiye's most widespread and most powerful capital platform on a global scale, is highly important, Kılıç stated that they believe this cooperation will lead to many positive developments for the Turkish economy in the coming period.