Evtiko Türkiye

What did it do?

Evtiko was a property start-up founded in Istanbul in 2016 by Sina Afra, founder of Markafoni, the Turkish online fashion retailer. It gave people wanting to sell their homes a purchase offer within 48 hours, valid for 15 days, then bought the property, refurbished it and sold it on. If the home sold for a higher price, 20 per cent of the profit was paid to the former owner.

Why did it shut down?

In May 2019 Evtiko halted its buying and selling operations in Turkey and announced it would continue in Spain under the Tiko brand. Webrazzi wrote that the decision was most likely driven by the state of the construction sector and the decline in home sales shown in TÜİK (Turkish Statistical Institute) data. egirişim also pointed to the domestic property crisis and high mortgage rates. According to Para Dergisi, the system of carrying out valuations and making purchase offers failed to make headway in Turkey. By putting the homes themselves on its balance sheet, the model left the company directly exposed to macroeconomic risk in a market where prices and demand were unpredictable.

The story

Sina Afra had made one of the best-known exits in Turkish internet history with Markafoni. After leaving that company in 2014, he turned to an unexpected field: housing. Evtiko, which he founded in Istanbul in 2016, came out of stealth in September with a report by Webrazzi. Its investors included Rocket Internet and Oliver Samwer.

The idea was to shorten the slow and uncertain process of selling a home. A would-be seller filled in a form, and Evtiko made an offer within 48 hours, valid for 15 days. If the offer was accepted, most of the payment was made on moving day. Evtiko refurbished the property and sold it on, and if it found a higher price it paid 20 per cent of the profit back to the former owner. According to figures on the company's website, selling a home the traditional way in Turkey took an average of 109 days.

In this model the company put the homes themselves on its balance sheet. As long as the housing market was buoyant, that was an advantage; when demand fell, it became a serious risk. In the first months of 2019 home sales had declined compared with the same period a year earlier, and mortgage rates were high.

On 27 May 2019 Evtiko announced on its Twitter account that it was ending its operations in Turkey. According to the statement, property buying and selling would continue in Spain under the Tiko brand, with technology support provided from Turkey. According to Webrazzi, the company had raised USD 8.3 million in investment by then, and the decision was most likely driven by the fall in home sales. Para Dergisi wrote that the system had failed to make headway in Turkey.

The sequel is interesting. Tiko grew fast in Spain; as Webrazzi reported, it raised USD 65 million in 2021 and in 2024 acquired the Madrid-based Housell. Afra's Istanbul office, meanwhile, carried on for a time as a coding hub. Evtiko's Turkish adventure shows how the same product can stall at the wrong time and under the wrong macroeconomic conditions.

Lessons for founders

• If you build a business model that holds inventory, macroeconomic swings show up directly on your balance sheet.
• The same technology can work in a different market; sometimes changing the market is a better decision than changing the product.
• In a sector that depends on loan interest rates, demand can collapse because of a single variable outside your control.

Sources

1. Sina Afra's property start-up Evtiko ends its Turkish operations and carries on in Spain (Webrazzi, 2019-05-27)
2. Sina Afra's start-up Evtiko ends its Turkish operations (egirişim, 2019-05-28)
3. Sina Afra shut down in Turkey, and demand was five times higher in that country (Patronlar Dünyası (Para Dergisi), 2019-12-20)
4. Coming out of stealth, Evtiko offers a fast and advantageous way to sell your home (Webrazzi, 2016-09-05)
5. Sina Afra's property start-up Tiko acquires Spain-based Housell (Webrazzi, 2024-02-20)

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