Iyzico, a Turkish online payments company and potential Stripe competitor, closes $15M Series C

By Steve O’Hear for techCrunch

Iyzico, the Turkish fintech startup to let e-commerce sites and other apps easily accept online payments, has closed $15 million in a Series C round, $12 million of which was announced earlier this year.

Joining the round is London-based VC Amadeus Capital Partners, investing $2 million, while the first closing of Iyzico’s Series C was led by Vostok Emerging Finance, with participation from previous investors, International Finance Corporation (the World Bank’s investing arm), and Istanbul-based VC 212.

Sometimes dubbed the ‘Stripe of Turkey’, in reference to the widely popular San Francisco-based payments company that it counts as a potential competitor but which still hasn’t launched in Turkey, Iyzico targets online businesses and enterprises, particularly e-commerce sites, offering a developer-friendly platform for taking payments online.

It claims to be easy to integrate, and provides on-boarding in less than 24 hours, and is PCI-DSS and BRSA (Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency) certified to ensure security. Since launching in 2013, Iyzico says it is powering over 10,000 merchants, and counts 200,000 seller accounts via various online marketplaces.

Says Jason Pinto, Partner, Amadeus Capital Partners, in a statement: “The fast-growing Turkish economy is underpinned by strong consumer spending with a high proportion of this spend transacted with payment cards. Merchants must cater to this market need with sophisticated card acceptance systems. We are excited about Iyzico’s opportunity to address this demand with its modern, easy-to-integrate and fast-evolving payment system.”