Upside #38 - Turkish Tech, Tough Love & Trends for '25

🎙 Upside: The Real Stories Behind European Venture

Hosts: Dan (SuperSeed), Lomax (Outsized), Andrew (7%),
Guest: Dilek Dayinlarli (Scalex Ventures)

⏪ In This Episode

This week on Upside, the gang is joined by the brilliant Dilek Dayinlarli, founder and managing partner at Scalex Ventures. Together, they unpack the latest headlines, industry trends, and ecosystem insights — with a deep dive into the fast-emerging Turkish tech scene.

🔥 What We Cover

⚡ Rapid-fire News Roundup

Murati raises $2B at $10B valuation — with talent from OpenAI and the Albanian PM cheering her onSynthesia hits $100M ARR and partners with Adobe — a UK generative AI success storyControversy as EIF refuses to back weapons/defence startups, even as Europe ramps defence spendingASML's Q1: Strong results but order volumes down — signs of tariff jitters?Figma confidentially files for IPO, bucking the trendHugging Face acquires a French humanoid robotics startupDollar drops: good for European stocks, not so good for US VC-backed markupsUK's bid for a piece of the $500B Stargate AI data centre projectNew Finnish startup hub Maria 01 scaling up to 70K sq ft — the Paris Station F playbook

📈 Reports & Market Trends

Dealroom x HSBC Q1 Report: UK startups raised $4.2B in Q1 2024 - led by healthtech, with outsized deals like Isomorphic ($600M) and Vediva ($400M)Concerns over UK IPO pipeline - will LSE stage a comeback?The "founder flywheel" is spinning: UK seeing post-exit talent build new venturesBig players still dominate fundraising: EIF, British Business Bank, British Patient Capital lead LP activity

💬 Big Conversations

Liquidity crisis in European VC: money going in, but exits not keeping paceWhy mid-sized exits matter more than everCapital efficiency in emerging markets vs. “go big or go home” mentalityCan European VCs stomach the high-stakes bets their founders need?Secondary markets & the art of managing the “middle third” of your portfolio

🌍 Spotlight on Turkey Dilek brings us into the fast-growing Turkish tech ecosystem:

From $10M invested in 2012 to $2.6B+ in 2023Gaming, fintech, defence tech, and B2B software leading the chargeMassive spillover effects: Peak Games and Getir have spawned 100+ startupsEntry valuations 60% lower than the US, and capital efficiency is keySeries B gap remains a challenge — but momentum is buildingTurkey’s global diaspora plays a crucial role in scaling internationally

🏆 Deals of the Week

Dilek: Incident.io raises $62M Series B — another evolution in incident managementLomax: Strava acquires Runna, a top 3 UK fitness app — a quick win, or premature exit?

🔗 Resources Mentioned

Dealroom x HSBC UK Innovation Update (Q1 2024)PitchBook European VC Report (2024 Roundup)Maria 01 Startup Hub - Helsinki

Upside

This week's happenings in startup and investing land. Getting underneath VC, and discussing how to better support the European startup eco-system. 

Every week we share what's been on our mind and get under the skin of VC, investing, startups and founder psychology. 

From the team behind SuperSeed who invest in technical teams solving difficult business problems. 

The network is run on LinkedIn so join me there - https://www.linkedin.com/in/danbowyer/

With full interview audio and video uploaded to all major outlets. 

Love to hear from you - [email protected] 

• No. of episodes: 42
• Latest episode: 2025-05-10
• Business Entrepreneurship

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