Turkey’s Iyzico, which provides a platform to let e-commerce sites and other apps easily accept online payments (and can be thought of as the ‘Stripe of Turkey’), has raised a $1.4 million series B round. The funding was led by Turkish VC 212 Invest, along with previous backers Pahicle, and Speedinvest — adding to the $1.4 million it raised just over a year ago.
Iyzico says the new capital will be used to bolster its leadership position in Turkey where U.S.-based Stripe has yet to launch (despite ongoing European expansion), but where competition does exist in the form of the Samwer brothers’ Rocket Internet, which operates Stripe clone Paymill.
How long the Turkish startup can fend off Rocket Internet and Stripe, should the latter choose to enter the region, remains to be seen. That said, there are not-insignificant regulatory hurdles to cross in Turkey, as well as local market dynamics that are specific to the region.
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