Yunus Çelebiler sits down with Dilek Dayınlarlı, Founding Partner of ScaleX Ventures, one of the first Turkish VC funds dedicated to helping enterprise software startups scale globally from day one.
With more than a decade in venture, Dilek has been an early backer of Turkish tech champions like Insider, İyzico, Picus Security, and DataRow, and has built a cross-border investment thesis that blends Silicon Valley scale with Turkish engineering excellence.
We dive deep into Dilek’s journey from engineering and telco to launching ScaleX, the lessons she’s learned building a venture firm during COVID, and why she believes Turkey is at an inflection point for producing global category leaders.
This is a must-listen for anyone interested in venture capital, Turkish startups, deep tech, or scaling from emerging markets to the U.S.👇
Chapters
00:00 – Introduction
01:00 – Dilek’s path into venture capital
04:00 – Early bets: İyzico, Insider...
07:30 – Why enterprise SaaS and global-first
10:00 – Silicon Valley & Kauffman Fellowship
13:00 – FoundingScaleX during COVID
16:30 – Talent: bridging Bay Area and Turkey
19:00 – Go-to-market, and dev tools strategy
22:00 – Fund value-add: founder networks
25:00 – Motivation and impact: creating wealth through tech
28:00 – Investing in deep tech and frontier founders
31:00 – Fund strategy and LP evolution from Fund 1 to Fund 2
35:00 – Turkish VC ecosystem today: challenges and opportunities
38:00 – Reflections on being a long-term, adaptive investor
41:00 – Book recommendations: The Power Law & Superforecasting
44:00 – Stock options and wealth creation in emerging markets
46:00 – Final thoughts & shout-outs
🔗 Follow for more conversations on the future of VC in Turkey and beyond.
