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Unlocking Potential: The Booming SaaS Ecosystem

Istanbul Development Agency 

<p>The Istanbul Development Agency (ISTKA) has published the "Startups and Regulation: the T&uuml;rkiye Perspective" report, a comprehensive analysis of regulatory challenges facing T&uuml;rkiye's startup ecosystem and actionable solutions to unlock its innovation potential.​</p>
<h2>Key Challenges Identified</h2>
<p>The report, based on academic reviews, stakeholder interviews, and wide-ranging surveys, highlights barriers in startup formation, operations, funding, taxation, incentives, licensing, IP rights, and labor laws, including burdensome compliance, slow adaptation to new tech models, legal ambiguities, bureaucratic overloads, complex tax rules on stock options, missing modern financing tools like SAFE agreements, forex controls, rigid Turkish Commercial Code provisions, inter-agency coordination gaps, compliance burdens Law on the Protection of Personal Data (LPPD) and hurdles in flexible hiring or foreign talent attraction.​</p>
<h2>Proposed Solutions</h2>
<p>Recommendations advocate startup-specific incentives, reduced bureaucracy, regulatory sandboxes for safe innovation testing, risk-based and scaled regulations, and stakeholder collaboration for stable frameworks, drawing from global best practices such as dedicated "Startup Legislation," expanded sandboxes, enhanced Startup Visas and electronic permits, RegTech/SupTech adoption, and digitized public processes to eliminate wet signatures.​</p>
<h2>Strategic Roadmap</h2>
<p>83% of entrepreneurs call for broad reforms, with investors favoring targeted fixes to boost agility and talent access, positioning T&uuml;rkiye's young, tech-savvy population for global competitiveness through flexible, predictable rules. Access the full report in Turkish via istka.org.tr</p>