Baybars Altuntaş

Angel investments amounted to $102 million in Turkey in 2019, up 66 percent on an annual basis, an official said on Feb. 17.

Turkey is the fourth largest angel investment country in Europe with 141 angel investors, Lütfi Elvan, the chairman of parliament's planning and budget committee, told the World Congress of the World Business Angel Investment Forum (WBAF 2020) in Istanbul.

A two-day World Business Angels Investment Forum (WBAF), started on Feb. 18 in Istanbul, is hosting policymakers, entrepreneurs, representatives of financial institutions and companies, and hundreds of angel investors from all around the world.

"Angel investors," a group of wealthy individuals putting up their own money to back small- and medium-sized businesses, are expected to spend $50 billion in the coming years for such purposes, a leading association announced in an Istanbul summit on Feb. 13. 

The Business Angels Association of Turkey (TBAA) became the first national member of the Global Business Angels Network (GBAN), the association announced at the Global Entrepreneurship Congress in Milan.

The TBAA will represent Turkey at the global community of business angels and early stage markets, the association said by a written statement on March 23.