Ana Sayfa Blog

Applications Open for the $75,000 True Zero Global Prize Ahead of COP31

Akın Uludağ
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Applications Open for the $75,000 True Zero Global Prize Ahead of COP31

Ahead of the COP31 Climate Summit, set to take place in Antalya from November 9–20, 2026, applications are open for the True Zero Global Prize, an initiative designed to spotlight startups developing solutions across planetary health and sustainability.

Organized under SparkLabs True Zero—a partnership between SparkLabs Group and NetZero TEKMER—the competition will select 20 global finalists for its “Global 20” cohort. In addition to gaining exposure to international venture capital and ecosystem leaders, finalists will compete for a total cash prize pool of $75,000, with the winning startup receiving $50,000 and the runner-up securing $25,000.

Co-chaired by entrepreneur and artist Tyrese Gibson alongside tech investor Kevin Chou, the initiative features a 34-member global jury including leaders from OpenAI, NVIDIA, IBM, and Hyundai CRADLE. Following a dedicated mentoring sprint, selected startups will pitch at Demo Day and participate in 1-on-1 investor matchmaking meetings during the COP31 period. The deadline for incorporated startups to apply is September 28, 2026.

AgeSA Releases 2025 Sustainability Report: Thematic Fund Volume Surpasses 1.8 Billion TL

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AgeSA Releases 2025 Sustainability Report: Thematic Fund Volume Surpasses 1.8 Billion TL

Private pension and life insurance provider AgeSA has released its 2025 Sustainability Report, prepared in compliance with the Turkish Sustainability Reporting Standards (TSRS). The report outlines key performance metrics across ESG investments, carbon footprint reduction, workplace diversity, and community engagement.

According to the report, AgeSA expanded its portfolio of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)-linked products and services to 26, generating 15.4 billion TL—representing 51% of the company’s total revenue for the year. Backed by the introduction of two new thematic funds focused on clean energy and sustainable agriculture, the AgeSA Sustainability Equity Pension Investment Fund surpassed 1.8 billion TL in assets under management while delivering a 19% net return.

Advancing Toward Net Zero: 27% Reduction in Emissions

In line with its 2050 Net Zero target, AgeSA reduced total greenhouse gas emissions by 27% and trimmed its energy intensity by 29% year-over-year. The company also reduced plastic consumption by 39% and achieved a 33% recycling rate for operational waste.

On the human capital and governance front, women accounted for 66% of AgeSA’s total workforce, 52% of managerial positions, and 37.5% of technical STEM roles. In addition, the company directed 11.6 million TL into community impact and inclusion programs throughout 2025.

Investment: “W4 Games raises $18M”

Ahmet Borazan
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Investment: “W4 Games raises $18M”

Investment: “W4 Games raises $18M”

W4 Games, a Dublin, Ireland-based provider of enterprise technology and support for the open-source Godot Engine, raised $18M in a Series B funding round led by Tencent.

Other participants in the round included OSS Capital, Lux Capital, Naval Ravikant and Tobias Lutke’s family office.

Led by Co-CEO Nicola Farronato and founder Juan Linietsky, W4 Games provides commercial tools, cloud services, console ports and professional support to enable game studios and enterprise developers to build and ship video games using the open-source Godot Engine. Its platform combines support, custom tooling and multiplatform deployment services with upstream Godot open-source compatibility to deliver scalable game development workflows.

The company supports game studios and enterprises across Asia, Europe and the Americas. The Series B brings the company’s total funding to $33M.

The company intends to use the funds to expand its international team by 50%, accelerate development of its enterprise offering and support growing demand from enterprise developers using Godot.

Investment: Orascom Development Egypt raises USD 43.6M

Ahmet Borazan
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Investment: Orascom Development Egypt raises USD 43.6M

Investment: Orascom Development Egypt raises USD 43.6M

Orascom Development Egypt will increase its issued capital from USD 21.8 million (EGP 1.13B) to USD 70.4 million (EGP 3.65B) through the issuance of 2.52 billion bonus shares — a USD 43.6 million (EGP 2.52B) increase approved at the company’s Ordinary and Extraordinary General Meetings on June 8, 2026.

The increase will be distributed as 2.52 billion bonus shares. Shareholders who hold or purchase Orascom Development Egypt shares through the close of trading on Tuesday, October 6, 2026 will qualify for the distribution, which is scheduled to begin on Wednesday, October 7, 2026, subject to approval by the EGX Listing Committee.

Eligible shareholders will receive 2.2288508184 bonus shares for every existing share they hold before the increase; the allocation will be funded from shareholders’ share of profit distributions based on ODE’s 2025 financial statements. Because the ratio produces fractional shares, Orascom said fractions will be rounded in favor of smaller shareholders, beginning with the smallest holdings until the available quantity is exhausted. The distribution will take place through Misr for Central Clearing, Depository and Registry (MCDR) after the EGX Listing Committee approves the capital increase.

The capital increase changes the number of shares outstanding without requiring shareholders to make an additional cash payment; the allocation is funded from profit distributions rather than new cash contributions.

Investment: “CellPoint raises $34M”

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Investment: “CellPoint raises $34M”

Investment: “CellPoint raises $34M”

An AI-led payments platform for airlines and hospitality, CellPoint raised $34M in funding in a round led by Toscafund (managed by its PE affiliate Penta Capital).

Led by Group CEO Kevin Murphy and Chairman Michael Kelly, CellPoint’s Zenith platform operates as an AI decisioning layer above existing payment orchestrators to turn payment data into automated commercial decisions, raise approval rates, cut payment costs, and recover lost revenue without requiring a total overhaul of existing tech stacks. The company serves clients globally across the airline and hospitality industries.

The company intends to use the funds to build its Zenith platform, accelerate product development across data and AI, add 50 new roles, and scale operations across Europe, the Americas and Asia.

Investment: “Spott raises $21M”

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Investment: “Spott raises $21M”

Investment: “Spott raises $21M”

Spott, an AI-native applicant tracking system (ATS) and customer relationship management (CRM) platform for recruitment agencies, has raised $21 million in a Series A round led by Balderton Capital.

The round included participation from Base10 Partners, Y Combinator and Fortino.

Founded in Leuven in 2024 by university friends Lander Degreve, Manu Vanderveeren and Samuel Smeys, Spott emerged from the founders’ work with recruitment businesses at McKinsey, Bain and BCG, where they identified an industry under pressure to improve efficiency while relying on ageing and fragmented technology.

Spott brings applicant tracking, CRM and adjacent functions together in a single AI-native platform, combining candidate management, search, conversations, outreach and automation. The platform turns information from emails, CVs and recruitment pipelines into searchable data and can support databases containing up to two million candidates. The company aims to automate administrative and sourcing work while keeping consequential decisions with recruiters; it does not autonomously move candidates into pipelines or present them to clients without human approval.

The Series A funding will be used to support international expansion, develop enterprise functionality and advance the company’s agentic AI capabilities. Spott is opening offices in Sydney and New York and plans to grow its workforce and engineering capacity, as well as build AI features to identify vacancies, candidate career moves and recommended next steps.

“During our work with recruitment businesses, we saw firms under intense pressure to cut costs and make more placements, while their recruiters lost hours moving information between outdated systems. Recruitment succeeds through trust and human judgement. Spott gives agencies control of their data and puts AI to work around their recruiters, freeing them to deepen relationships with candidates and clients,” said Lander Degreve, co-founder and CEO of Spott.

Investment: “Verda raises $189M”

Ahmet Borazan
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Investment: “Verda raises $189M”

Investment: “Verda raises $189M”

Verda is a European technology company that develops and operates a full-stack AI cloud, managing infrastructure from physical data centres and hardware through to its cloud platform and AI research. The company has raised $189 million in an oversubscribed Series B led by Emergence Capital to scale its AI cloud and expand compute capacity.

Other participants in the round include MUFG Innovation Partners, Supermicro, Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Company, Lifeline Ventures, 6 Degrees Capital (6DC), byFounders and Tesi (Finnish Industry Investment Ltd), as well as angel investors including Ola Tørudbakken of Meta and Mark Saroufim of Core Auto and GPUMODE.

Founded in Helsinki in 2020 by Ruben Bryon, Verda provides on-demand computing infrastructure for AI workloads and operates across Europe, the US and Asia. The latest financing brings the company’s total funding to more than $450 million and, according to Verda, values it at over $1 billion, making it a European unicorn.

The company manages the full stack for AI customers — from data centre hardware to platform services — and recently reached a $165 million annualised revenue run rate in July. Verda has also opened offices in London and San Francisco as part of its international expansion.

Verda will use the new funding to accelerate product development across all layers of its AI cloud, increase compute capacity (including investments in inference), multiply its compute capacity over the next year and support continued expansion across Europe, the US and Asia.

“AI is becoming critical infrastructure across industries, and the next few years are a pivotal window for Europe. Our north star is to build the first true tech company in Europe, with AI infrastructure as the starting foundation, and to bring down the carbon footprint of compute worldwide. We’re proud of our progress but are a long way from being done,” said Ruben Bryon, Verda’s founder and CEO.

Investment: “Oura raises $2.2 billion”

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Investment: “Oura raises $2.2 billion”

Investment: “Oura raises $2.2 billion”

Oura, the maker of smart rings, has launched an initial public offering process targeting up to $2.2 billion. The company set a price range of $40 to $44 per share and plans to offer a total of 50 million shares, combining newly issued shares and sales by existing shareholders; Oura has filed to list on Nasdaq under the ticker “OURA”.

Among shareholders planning to sell in the offering, Forerunner Ventures is highlighted: Forerunner-linked funds hold roughly 28.7 million shares, equivalent to about a 9.3% stake, and intend to sell their entire position in the offering.

Founded in 2013 in Finland, Oura produces smart rings and a companion application that track sleep, activity and stress. The company attributes recent subscriber growth in part to sales of the Oura Ring 5 and expects to close fiscal 2026 with approximately 5.7 million paid members, representing year‑over‑year growth of about 96%.

Oura reported that subscription revenue for the nine months ending in June reached $240.5 million, up 121% year‑on‑year, with the subscription business delivering an 89% gross margin. The company also states that more than 94% of ring activations convert to paid membership.

The planned offering comprises 50 million shares, of which 13.5 million would be newly issued by the company and 36.5 million would be sold by existing shareholders—meaning about 73% of the offering would come from shareholder sales. If the price is set at the $44 upper bound, Oura would receive about $594 million before expenses while selling shareholders would receive roughly $1.61 billion. Using the $42 midpoint, the offering’s pre‑expense size is roughly $1.2 billion. At the $42 assumption, Oura expects net proceeds of approximately $532.6 million; about $526.4 million of that is planned to cover tax withholding and payment obligations arising from employee share awards, leaving about $6.2 million for general corporate purposes. Pricing at $44 would imply a post‑IPO market capitalization of about $14.1 billion and a fully diluted valuation near $15.6 billion.

Investment: “Biolevate raises €30M”

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Investment: “Biolevate raises €30M”

Investment: “Biolevate raises €30M”

Life sciences AI company Biolevate has raised €30 million in a Series A round co‑led by RAISE France, the investment vehicle of French entrepreneur Aymar Hénin, and Orange Ventures. The funding will expand its platform for automating scientific and regulatory workflows and support its international growth.

The round also included participation from MSD Global Health Innovation Fund (MGHIF), Station F and existing investor EQT Ventures.

Founded in Paris by a team of former Dataiku engineers and AI researchers, Biolevate has developed an enterprise agentic AI platform that turns scientific and regulatory knowledge into auditable workflows. The platform is designed to keep its outputs grounded in source evidence, allowing life sciences organisations to use AI in regulated environments while maintaining human oversight.

Initially developed to accelerate regulatory approval workflows, the platform now covers areas across the life sciences value chain including research, clinical trials, health technology assessments, regulatory dossiers, drug discovery and drug development, and can run up to 100,000 agents concurrently. Biolevate says it has accelerated systematic literature reviews and research synthesis sixteenfold and delivered an 80 per cent efficiency gain in regulatory intelligence and compliance. Since its seed round in 2024, it serves more than a dozen enterprise customers and has reported growth in annual recurring revenue.

The company says the Series A will be used to accelerate international expansion, deepen product capabilities and scale deployments with life sciences organisations. The Series A coincides with expansion into the US with an office opening in Boston; Biolevate doubled its headcount over the past year and expects to double again over the coming year. It has also drafted seven patent applications across several therapeutic areas, two of which have been filed in Europe.

We started Biolevate with a mission-driven team united by the belief that AI could improve millions of lives if we empowered the right people and solved the right technological challenges. Today, our vision is becoming reality. Customers are increasingly embracing AI automation at scale, grounded in evidence and under rigorous human oversight, said Joël Belafa, co-founder and CEO of Biolevate.

Ingosa Secures Second Investment from FutureBright Ventures

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Ingosa Secures Second Investment from FutureBright Ventures

AI and AdTech startup Ingosa, an alumnus of the Garanti BBVA Partners Tech accelerator, has raised its second funding round from FutureBright Ventures. Alongside the investment, the startup announced the rollout of its new interactive research tool, InsightMate.

Combining Ingosa’s artificial intelligence capabilities with FutureBright Group’s consumer behavior and data analytics infrastructure, InsightMate transforms traditional digital ad placements into interactive polling and research touchpoints. The solution enables brands to gather real-time consumer insights without redirecting users away from their current digital channels. Ingosa plans to deploy the capital to scale InsightMate across Türkiye and accelerate its international expansion.

Commenting on the funding, Garanti BBVA Executive Vice President Sibel Kaya noted that the bank has supported 65 tech startups through the Partners Tech program since 2015, highlighting that Ingosa’s new product launch and consecutive investment round demonstrate how ecosystem-backed startups can scale into global success stories.

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