Interest of Venture Capital Companies in Open Source-Based New Ventures: The Case of Turkey

This study focuses on the attitudes of venture capital companies with regard to investments into open source software-based start-ups in Turkey, with a special focus on their preference for different possible business models which these start-ups could be based on. A series of in-depth qualitative interviews has been done with managers of venture capital firms with an IT focus operating in Turkey. Currently, no investments proposal have been received, and an analysis of barriers has resulted in showing lack of support from institutions (especially universities) and insufficient community support, which blocks the development of related expertise. On the other hand, interest exists based on perceptions of open source software-based new ventures as more innovative with higher probability of returns when compared to their proprietary counterparts. This confirms prior theories. For future applications, venture capital firms would prefer dual or hosted business models when investing. Another major outcome is that researchers should step back and focus attention on reasons related with the immaturity of open source-based projects in Turkey.