The Abraaj Group invests in leading Turkish e-commerce business Hepsiburada

The Abraaj Group, a leading investor operating in global growth markets, announced the acquisition, through one of its Funds, of a minority stake in Hepsiburada.com , the market leader in the Turkish online retail sector. The investment will be used by Hepsiburada to accelerate the rapid expansion of its market leading e-commerce operations in Turkey, including a custom-built, state-of-the-art fulfilment center.
Established in 1998, Hepsiburada is headquartered in Istanbul, Turkey, and owned by the Dogan family, controlling shareholders of the Dogan Group, a leading Turkish conglomerate active in the media, energy, financial services and tourism sectors. The Company began as a vertical e-commerce player focused on IT hardware and has since diversified its portfolio. Its offering of 500,000 products in more than 30 different categories in 2014 is rapidly expanding and already has a broad range from mobile phones to cosmetics.
Abraaj’s investment will be used to implement the value creation plan prepared together with the Hepsiburada management team, which includes relocating to a new, purpose-built fulfilment center and other critical value-added services including last-mile delivery. The new fulfilment center with its 100,000 m² operational floor will be the largest and most sophisticated infrastructure investment in the Turkish retail sector to date and will replace the Company’s existing five warehouse facilities. The fulfilment center will have unique logistics capabilities to serve Hepsiburada as well as its third party merchants.
Abraaj’s investment will also allow Hepsiburada to make extensive enhancements to its IT infrastructure, launch its third-party marketplace offering, implement best-in-class CRM capabilities, and strengthen its mobile offering. As part of the transaction, Abraaj will also invest in the two smaller online subsidiaries of Hepsiburada, Evmanya and Altincicadde, which will enable the Company, with Abraaj’s support, to address the significant growth opportunity in the furniture and home accessories market through an omni-channel presence with four brick and mortar stores.
Commenting on the transaction, Arif Naqvi, Founder and Group Chief Executive of The Abraaj Group, said: “Our investment in Hepsiburada represents a landmark transaction for Abraaj in the online retail space and marks our ninth investment in Turkey since 2007. Our strong credentials in Turkey are underpinned by proven partnerships, outstanding exits and a robust commitment to value creation, which we will continue to demonstrate using our significant regional and investment expertise to transition Hepsiburada into the next phase of its growth trajectory.
Source:The Abraaj Group