NB Ekonomi (Print): Business leaders debated the codes of the new competitiveness

The print edition of NB Ekonomi dated 6 October 2026 led its front page with the fifth Transforming Leadership Summit, organised by EKONOMİ Gazetesi in cooperation with PwC and with Hepsiburada as main sponsor. The front-page story, headlined “Business leaders debated the codes of the new competitiveness”, directed readers to the extended coverage on pages 10, 11 and 12. Kamil Kılıç, CEO of Letven Capital, appeared both among the front-page highlights and in the technology session feature on page 12.

In the front-page summary under the heading “The transformation of business and investment in the wake of technology”, Kılıç’s message was carried in a single line: “We must close the financing gap in the venture capital ecosystem.” Mustafa Mertcan, Chairman of DOF Robotics, and Mehmet Önder, Chairman of Uyumsoft, also took part in the same session.

“We invested USD 8 million in a dark factory with 43 robots”

The page 12 feature, published under the headline “Investment and production thinking is being reshaped by technology”, reported on the session “How Are We Transforming Our Business and Our Investments in the Wake of Technology?”, moderated by Dr. Şeref Oğuz, Chairman of the Editorial Board of EKONOMİ Gazetesi. Kılıç’s section noted that there are close to 640 venture capital funds in Türkiye, that the value created by their investments has reached roughly TRY 650 billion, and that the ecosystem holds around 3,000 companies and close to 25,000 investors — while the share of venture capital funds within total fund size remains below 1 percent. The report also noted that Letven Capital had raised USD 100 million over the past five years and created roughly USD 400 million in value.

Kılıç said they had invested USD 8 million on the Physical AI side and were working, together with domain experts who have spent years in shipyards, on a structure that would allow production to be carried out in a dark factory. He summarised Letven Capital’s investment method as finding a sector’s unsolved problem first, combining the domain expert who can solve a corporate company’s problem with academic knowledge and technology, and then turning the solution into a company and making the venture capital investment once it finds a response from the customer.

The missing link in the financing chain

The report also carried Kılıç’s central criticism of the ecosystem: there is a significant financing gap at the stage after venture capital; growth capital needs to step in so the company can scale, with banking finance, pension funds and capital markets then joining the chain. Pointing to considerable losses caused by this missing link, Kılıç said more efficient and more resilient funds that keep the sector alive should be developed, and resources channelled towards companies that produce technology and have growth potential.

The summit was held on 2–3 October 2026 at Elite World Grand Sapanca under the theme “Defying Uncertainty”, covering technology and artificial intelligence, sustainability, the energy transition, companies’ capacity to adapt in supply processes, and the transformation of leadership.