TRVC21: Finberg to Oleka: Why Turkey Needs Growth Capital Now | İhsan Elgin on TRVC

In this episode of TRVC – The Turkish VC Podcast, Yunus Çelebiler sits down with İhsan Elgin, Managing Director at Finberg and Managing Partner at Oleka Capital, to discuss the evolution of venture capital in Turkey — and why the next phase of the ecosystem will look very different from the last five years.İhsan shares his journey from corporate executive at Koç Group to startup founder (with a U.S. exit), to launching one of Turkey’s first accelerator programs, and ultimately building Finberg into one of the country’s most active venture platforms. He explains how Finberg started as a $5M fintech-focused fund and achieved a 5x return in just 3.5 years — and how that early success shaped its expansion into thematic funds and a fund-of-funds strategy.The conversation then turns to Oleka Capital, a growth-stage investment platform designed to address one of the biggest structural gaps in the Turkish ecosystem: the lack of institutional growth capital with real operating expertise. İhsan outlines Oleka’s approach — combining a core growth fund, SPVs for larger tickets, and venture debt/private credit solutions — to provide “growth financing,” not just capital.Key topics in this episode include:

• Why Turkish startups must expand regionally (GCC, Eastern Europe, CIS)
• How cash returns now matter more than paper valuations
• Why the zero-interest-rate era distorted venture investing
• The coming shakeout among Turkish VC funds
• Founder-friendly vs investor-friendly markets — and why we are entering a more balanced phase
• Capital efficiency, financial discipline, and why unit economics are non-negotiable
• Building value creation plans before investing
• Reverse-engineering exits before writing a check

İhsan also discusses how trust between founders and investors weakened during the boom years — and why rebuilding that trust is essential for the ecosystem’s next chapter.This episode is a deep dive into the structural evolution of Turkish venture capital — less about hype, more about fundamentals.If you are a founder, investor, LP, or operator building in Turkey and the surrounding region, this is a conversation you don’t want to miss.—About TRVC:TRVC (The Turkish VC Podcast) explores venture capital, startups, and technology in Turkey and the broader region. Hosted by Yunus Çelebiler, TRVC features leading founders, investors, and operators shaping the ecosystem.Subscribe for weekly conversations with the people building the future of Turkish tech.