Yemeksepeti.com Goes Global with $44m General Atlantic Investment

Online food ordering service Yemeksepeti.com announced today that the company received $44m funding from global growth investor General Atlantic (GA) following several weeks of negotiations. The exact amount of shares that exchanged hands is unknown, but GA will possess minority stake in the company. Endeavor Catalyst, a philanthropic investment vehicle that previously supported AirTies in Turkey, also participated in the round.

In a joint press release, GA Managing Director Gabriel Caillaux and Yemeksepeti co-founder & CEO Nevzat Aydın announced GA’s first investment in Turkey, and spoke of what Yemeksepeti.com planned to do with the newly available funds. Aydın remarked that the “new funding allows… to invest aggressively in the talent, technology and global expansion efforts for Yemeksepeti,” and revealed that the company plans to enter three new markets in Middle East and East Europe by investing in leading local services. Aydın also mentioned that Yemeksepeti.com will announce three new projects in two months, one of which will be a B2B F&B services for Yemeksepeti partners.

Founded in 2001, Yemeksepeti.com is a portal which allows consumers to order meal delivery from a selection of 6,500 restaurants across both local establishments and chains including Burger King, Domino’s Pizza, KFC, Little Caesars Pizza, McDonald’s, Papa John’s and Pizza Hut. Across Turkey, Russia, and the UAE, the company has 1.5m registered users who submit over 50,000 orders daily. Yemeksepeti.com currently operates in 44 Turkish cities, and plans to be available nationwide by the end of 2013.

GA’s funds reach $14b and the investing firm has partnerships with internet and tech companies like Facebook, Alibaba, Gilt, Web.com. “We are impressed by the growth Yemeksepeti.com has achieved,” said Caillaux of their new partner, which has grown on average 70-80% in the past 5 years. In 2012, Yemeksepeti.com has grown 55%, and is expected to declare an income of $180-190m.

“This is an enormously exciting moment for Nevzat and his team at Yemeksepeti, and we are thrilled and proud to be participating in it,” said Linda Rottenberg, co-founder and CEO of Endeavor Global.