ODTÜ Teknokent and Rhea signed a support of 100 million lira to

ODTÜ Teknokent and Rhea signed a support of 100 million lira to

Press Release
January 14, 2014
ODTÜ Teknokent and Rhea signed a support of
100 million lira to entrepreneurship
ODTÜ Teknokent Yönetim A.Ş. and Rhea Asset Management signed a cooperation protocol in
order to establish a Venture Capital Investment Fund aimed at supporting seed-stage and
early-stage ventures which are in need of funds. The volume of the fund that will become a
lifeline for the entrepreneurs is anticipated to be 80 to 100 million lira.
Two important institutions of the entrepreneurship ecosystem, ODTÜ Teknokent Yönetim A.Ş.
and Rhea Asset Management, signed an important cooperation that will support
entrepreneurs. According to the cooperation protocol signed by the two parties, a Venture
Capital Investment Fund (VCIF) will be launched in order to provide financial support to seedstage and early-stage enterprises and projects that are in need of fund.
The protocol allows for more than one VCIF to be launched, and the fund is anticipated to have
a volume of 80 – 100 million lira. The bulletin of the Capital Markets Board of Turkey dated
January 2, 2014 cleared the way for the VCIFs which provide qualified investors many
investment advantages, tax incentives being in the first place, and which open a new window
for private sector investments. Those investors who would like to benefit from the tax
incentives need to have taken a decision in that direction until the end of April, before filing a
tax statement.
The objective is creating global companies
The cooperation protocol aims at accomplishing a first in Turkey with regards to the world of
entrepreneurship. The representatives from both institutions were present at the signing
ceremony that was held at ODTÜ Teknokent. The protocol was signed by Prof. Dr. Volkan
Atalay, Vice President of ODTÜ and Chairman of the Board of Directors at ODTÜ Teknokent
Yönetim A. Ş., and by Onur Takmak, Chairman of the Board of Directors at Rhea Asset
Management at the ceremony, with the participation of Mustafa İ. Kızıltaş, General Manager
of ODTÜ Teknokent; T. Hürsel Kendir and Haluk Safi, members of the Board of Directors at
Metutech-BAN; and Seda Önen, member of the Board of Directors at Rhea Asset
Management, and the General Manager of Rhea Venture Capital Investment Trust Inc.
The VCIF will be launched and will operate through the common representation of the parties,
and it will be launched by Rhea Asset Management in compliance with the Capital Markets
Board of Turkey bulletin. An Investment Committee will be composed by the parties under the
auspices of Rhea Asset Management, and it will perform the portfolio management of the VCIF.
This same Investment Committee will finalize the decisions on the choice of projects and
enterprises that the VCIF will invest in.
Prof. Dr. Volkan Atalay, Vice President of ODTÜ and Chairman of the Board of Directors at
ODTÜ Teknokent Yönetim A. Ş. gave a speech at the signing ceremony, indicating that the
ODTÜ Teknokent is the first and most innovative technopark in Turkey. He said: “Encouraging
and supporting entrepreneurship and innovation, contributing to the growth of the
entrepreneurship ecosystem in our country by advancing the capacities to create technology
are our raison d'être. We have supported hundreds of venture ideas and projects, and we
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continue to support them.” Prof. Dr. Atalay stated that they believe that the VCIF is a very
significant step as a new model in creating resources for our entrepreneurship world. He said:
“We think that this model will function as a leverage in directing more private sector
investments to entrepreneurship. Together with Rhea Asset Management, which is one of the
leading corporations in portfolio management in our country, we will try to bring this model
into action in the most efficient way and create more funds for our enterprises and projects.
We will not only support the projects at our technocity, but we will also support those seedstage and early-stage projects from other technocity projects that we see fit. We will be able to
animate dozens of innovation projects even with our target 100 million lira fund which we will
create with the first fund we will establish. This is an extremely exciting development.”
Onur Takmak, Chairman of the Board of Directors at Rhea Asset Management stated that
Rhea, one of the leading corporations in asset management, investment consultancy, and
venture capital in Turkey, provides a multidimensional support to entrepreneurship, and that
they are excited of having taken the first step with ODTÜ Teknokent in bringing the VCIF model
into action.
Takmak expressed that the VCIF model will enable the allocation of more resources to the
entrepreneurship ecosystem and that it will have strategic significance in supporting technology
based innovation, in the development of the country's economy and increasing its competitive
power. He said that with this model, a new window of opportunity is now open that promises
largest wins to private sector investors. Takmak continued his words as follows:
“As Rhea Financial Services Group, we are a very experienced corporations group that operate
wherever there is entrepreneurship. And ODTÜ Teknokent has the experience of many years in
entrepreneurship. With the cooperation of ODTÜ Teknokent, we will raise a fund with the
private sector savings and will transform it into a resource for entrepreneurs and direct it into
venture investments. With the fund that we will launch in the first stage, we will provide funds
to seed-stage and early-stage projects and enterprises. We will work to create global
companies from the entrepreneurs of our country. Every successful project will create a value
for our country, and will provide a high return to our investors. Our objective is to bring into
being a system in which all parties win by creating new success stories at a national and
international level, and to become a pioneer in this area.”
Hurry up in order to benefit from the tax advantage
Onur Takmak reminded of the time limitation to the investors who would like to invest by
taking the tax advantages the state provides to the VCIF model: “Corporate and qualified
individual investors can invest in this fund by declaring that they will direct up to 10% of their
2013 tax base to VCIF investment, and thereby defer their tax until the end of the fund period.
There won't be an increase in their tax they deferred when they pay their taxes at the end of
the fund span. Consequently, they should have taken a decision accordingly until the tax
statement in April. As Rhea Asset Management, we will collect letters of intent until the end of
April from investors who has this inclination and would like to participate in our fund. We
suggest the decision-making managing executives of corporations to put this topic on their
agenda promptly in order for them to be able to benefit from the tax advantage.”
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Captions:
Photo-1: The cooperation protocol between ODTÜ Teknokent and Rhea Asset Management was signed by Prof. Dr. Volkan
Atalay, the Vice President of ODTÜ and the Chairman of the BOD at ODTÜ Teknokent Yönetim (left) and by Onur Takmak,
Chairman of the BOD at Rhea Asset Management at a ceremony in which the top management of two parties participated.
Photo-2: Prof. Dr. Volkan Atalay, Vice President of ODTÜ and Chairman of the BOD at ODTÜ Teknokent Yönetim A. Ş., Mustafa İ.
Kızıltaş, General Manager of ODTÜ Teknokent, T. Hürsel Kendir and Haluk Safi, members of the BOD at Metutech-BAN, Onur
Takmak, Chairman of the BOD at Rhea Asset Management, and Seda Önen, member of the BOD at Rhea Asset Management,
and General Manager of Rhea Venture Capital Investment Trust Inc. participated in the signing ceremony.
Please contact for more information
www.teknofund.com
ODTÜ Teknokent Yönetim A.Ş. / Selin Doğu 0312 987 35 00 [email protected]
Rhea Asset Management / Cengiz Cemri 0532 602 04 22 [email protected]
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