Turkey’s Metatime raises $11 million in seed funding amid rising crypto adoption

Metatime, a Turkish crypto exchange that has yet to launch, raised $11 million in seed funding.

Turkish investment firm Yildiz Tekno GSYO and multiple undisclosed angel investors provided the funding, Metatime said.

Abdurrahman Kilic of Yildiz Tekno confirmed the investment to The Block. The firm’s limited partners are some of Turkey’s biggest companies including Halkbank, Turk Telekom and Kalyon Holding.

Crypto is popular in Turkey where inflation is sky-high and the currency is devalued. The country was ranked twelfth in Chainalysis’s 2022 Global Crypto Adoption Index. Metatime is coming into a space already crowded with established crypto exchanges amid economic turmoil, including BtcTurk, Paribu and Bitay.

Yildiz invested $150,000 for 1% equity in Metatime, Yusuf Sevim, co-founder and CEO of Metatime, told The Block. He added that the rest of the funding — $11 million — was provided by angel investors in a token round.

A total of 33 undisclosed angel investors bought MetaCoin (MTC) tokens, Sevim said, adding that 100 million MTC were sold at 5 cents and another 100 million MTC at 6 cents.

The two tranches of the token sale began and ended in January and February, respectively, Sevim said. While he declined to name the angel investors, Sevim said they are from Turkey, Denmark and Germany.

What is Metatime?

Metatime is an Istanbul-based crypto startup that is preparing to launch several products and services, including a crypto exchange, wallet, NFT marketplace, native blockchain and a stablecoin.

Sevim said Metatime was established in 2021 and has been under development since then. When asked why the startup raised the seed round after two years, Sevim said that he and Metatime’s other co-founder Hys Sahin had previously invested $10 million in the company. Metatime has a third co-founder, Ali Bahadir Ural, who didn’t invest, Sevim said.

Metatime’s exchange, blockchain, stablecoin and MTC token will go live on Nov. 11, according to Sevim. The NFT marketplace and wallet are expected to launch in the first quarter of next year.

On Nov. 11, 10% of the angel investors’ tokens will also get unlocked, Sevim said, adding that the rest 90% of tokens will unlock over the following 225 days with a daily unlock rate of 0.4%.

There are currently 208 people working for Metatime, Sevim said, and the startup is hiring more people across roles. Metatime will hold several public token sales as well in the near future.

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