(Bloomberg) -- Turkey’s fintech startup Colendi raised $65 million in fresh funding from a group of investors including Citigroup Inc.’s venture capital arm at a valuation of $700 million.

Apart from Citi Ventures, Migros Ticaret AS, Sepil Ventures, Re-Pie Asset Management, Finberg and Hedef Holding participated in the Series B round, according to Bulent Tekmen, co-founder and chief executive office of Colendi, formally known as Colendi Yapay Zeka ve Buyuk Veri Teknoloji Hizmetleri AS. Existing investors also took part in the round, he said.

Turkey’s banking regulator approved Colendi’s application to establish a digital bank in 2023. “With the oversubscribed Series B round the investment necessary for the establishment of Colendi Bank has been raised,” Tekmen said in an interview. The firm is targeting a dual listing in Istanbul and London, and plans to be IPO-ready by 2026, he added.

The Istanbul-based fintech and digital services company started a new funding round in March and seeks to raise over $150 million by the end of this year, Tekmen said. Tekmen expects Colendi’s value to reach $1 billion once the round concludes. Any startup hitting $1 billion or more in value is called a unicorn.

“The funding will drive the company’s mission to become a major digital banking entity across the EMEA, the GCC, and Turkic republics.”

With 17 million users in Turkey, Colendi targets a user base of 1 billion over an unspecified period of time and plans to achieve this goal by expanding in emerging markets with a large population like Pakistan and Indonesia. 

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