When Oguz Alper Oktem spotted a couple of electric scooters outside his Los Angeles apartment in the summer of 2017, the then-head of Turkey’s answer to Netflix.com wondered how they could help to ease traffic in his home city of Istanbul where congestion is among the worst in the world, Bloomberg reports.
After returning to the Turkish financial hub a year later, Oktem quit his job with BluTV and set about with plans to set up a micro-mobility app. One of the first challenges, Oktem recalls, was tracking down a scooter in Turkey. The chase led him to Athens, and after a lengthy journey back home with the two-wheeler, Marti was created.
Marti is pushing ahead with the plans to merge with Turkey-focused Galata Acquisition, which is backed by Callaway Capital Management. The transaction values the combined company at a pro forma enterprise value of approximately $532 million.
As announced earlier this month, the combined company will receive up to approximately $147 million held in Galata’s trust account, subject to any redemptions, as well as a $150 million PIPE.
Marti is backed by a diverse investor base and operates a fleet of over 46,000 e-mopeds, e-bikes, and e-scooters, serviced by proprietary software systems and IoT infrastructure. Read more.
