Abu Dhabi's ADQ partners Turkey ecommerce giant Trendyol to launch fintech

Dubai: The Abu Dhabi investment firm ADQ is partnering one of Turkey’s biggest ecommerce platforms Trendyol to set up a new fintech in that market.

The other investors in the project are Haluk Bayraktar, CEO of Baykar, which is the world’s biggest maker of unmanned aerial vehicles, and Singapore headquartered Ant International. (Ant International is an affiliate of China's Alibaba Group.)

The new venture aims to ‘enhance the efficiency of financial transactions’ for individuals and small businesses in Turkey – ‘both within and beyond the Trendyol ecosystem’.

“We believe this unique alliance will accelerate Turkey’s digital transformation,” said Trendyol Group President, Çaglayan Çetin.

“Our ambitions are simple: we want to make financial services more accessible initially to our 250,000 SMEs to support their e-commerce and e-export potential with our strong data-analysis capabilities, and to continue contributing sustainably and significantly to our country’s economic growth.”

SME financing and fintech platforms in this space are creating lucrative investment opportunities. IHC, the other major Abu Dhabi investor, announced details of buying out one such platform this week.

For Bayraktar, the aim is to 'create added value in the financial technologies ecosystem of Turkey by combining Baykar’s AI and cybersecurity capabilities with Trendyol’s expertise in e-commerce and Ant’s world-class know-how in fintech'.

“With a focus on high standards in risk management and security, we will build a fully domestic fintech infrastructure,” said Bayraktar.