The president of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., Michael Evans, was quoted saying that the Chinese e-commerce giant planned to invest more than $1 billion in a data center close to the Turkish capital Ankara and a logistics hub at Istanbul Airport.
According to an interview Evans gave to Turkey's Sabah newspaper, he believes Turkey to be a very strong production base and that the company is aiming to invest throughout Europe and the Middle East. Alibaba is a supporter of Trendyol, one of the most well-known e-commerce sites in Turkey.
"We have a serious investment plan at Istanbul Airport. We can evaluate e-export plans from here to Europe, the Middle East, and the Far East. We plan an investment of more than $1 billion," Evans said.
"The reason we chose Trendyol was that its technology was advanced and its potential was great. We are positioning this place as a base for Europe and the Middle East," he added.
Trendyol, a well-known e-commerce site in Turkey, has received funding from Alibaba on a significant scale. Istanbul is where the company's headquarters is. The Trendyol Group is the organization that runs Trendyol. Private enterprise Trendyol, specializing in the fashion and retail industries, was established in 2010 by Demet Mutlu.
With an initial investment of $300,000, Trendyol got funding in 2010 and 2011 from Tiger Global and Kleiner Perkins, as well as in 2014 from the EBRD. In 2018, Alibaba Group became a shareholder of Trendyol.
Following Alibaba's investment, Tiger Global, Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers, and the EBRD withdrew. Alibaba acquired a shareholder of the business by purchasing the Trendyol shares held by 3 foreign investors.
In August 2021, Trendyol had deals in place to raise $1.5 billion from several well-known investors, giving the company a $16.5 billion valuation. General Atlantic, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Princeville Capital, sovereign wealth funds, ADQ (UAE), and the Qatar Investment Authority all participated in co-leading the round, according to a statement from the business.
As a result, Trendyol was upgraded to the "decacorn" category, which is reserved for businesses with a valuation greater than $10 billion, even though its value rose to $16.5 billion. Bytedance, SpaceX, Stripe, Klarna, Epic Games, Cana, Checkout.com, Instacart, and Databricks will make up the top ten Decacorn Companies in 2022.
Unicorns appear to be an exception now that consumer technologies are becoming more and more able to gain momentum on a global scale. In other words, a billion-dollar value ten years ago was a solid position to be in, allowing the business in that position to develop a sustainable advantage.
