Turkish online payment company Iyzico raises €5.74 million

Iyzico has raised a Series B funding of 16.5 million Turkish liras, or 5.74 million euros. The Turkish company, which provides a platform to let ecommerce sites and other apps easily accept online payments, has raised more than 8.5 million euros in total since it was founded three years ago.

The round was led by International Finance Corporation, the investing arm of the World Bank. But TechCrunch writes also the Istanbul-based VC 212, Endeavor Catalyst, and Austria’s Speedinvest participated.

Co-founder and CEO Barbaros Özbugutu, who previously worked as the Vice President of Sales for Klarna in Germany, says he wants to use the new capital to grow further the business and the member base, as well as expand their research and development team, so they can “develop solutions that make life easier”.

Iyzico wants to become the Stripe of the region
Iyzico has plans to expand outside of Turkey, with the Middle East as its first initial target. Becoming the leading payments platform in this region is one of the main goals. Whereas they would have to compete with other payments platforms like Stripe, Braintree or Paymill in Europe, in Turkey or the Middle East the competition is less active. That’s also why it’s Iyzico’s goal to become the “Stripe of the region”, as Özbugutu puts it.

“It is particularly exciting to work with the IFC – a body with tremendous knowledge and experience in financial tech sector worldwide. Having become the leading payment solution for online businesses and enterprises in Turkey, Iyzico is enthusiastic to take its technology global”, he adds.

‘Electronical payments promote economic development’
The IFC shared a summary of the main elements of the (then) potential investment. It says the investment in Iyzico “will promote the development of a low cost and pervasive payment infrastructure in Turkey and the region”. It adds: “Making payments electronically rather than in cash has been shown to generate efficiency and promote economic development.”