ikas, a leading e-commerce platform, has netted an impressive $20 million in a Series A investment round. The round, led by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) of the World Bank and Re-Pie Asset Management, stands as the IFC’s most substantial investment in a Turkish startup, signifying ikas’s swift expansion and its essential role in empowering smaller enterprises.

In a pivotal development for Turkey’s startup environment, ikas has netted a $20 million Series A investment, with the IFC and Re-Pie Asset Management leading the initiative. This financial injection highlights ikas’s exceptional achievements in Turkey’s e-commerce infrastructure over the past two years. With this capital, the company is set to fortify its position in Europe and other key markets.

ikas’s rapid growth trajectory has been formally acknowledged, earning it a place in the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 programme in 2023 as one of the fastest-growing technology firms in Turkey. The company has also hit a significant SaaS milestone, increasing its Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) from $1M to $10M within just 16 months, with an ambitious goal of reaching $100M in the near future.

The success of ikas stems from its commitment to offering SMEs and entrepreneurs an accessible e-commerce platform, enabling the straightforward management of online stores without the prerequisite of technical skills. The energetic ikas team, averaging 28 years in age, signifies the company’s commitment to innovation and quality. Mustafa Namoğlu, Co-Founder and CEO of ikas, expressed his appreciation to customers, the team, investors, and all stakeholders for their unwavering support.

Dr. Emre Çamlıbel, Chairman of Re-Pie Asset Management’s Board, outlined the investment strategy, stating, “Re-Pie invests in ventures with high growth potential, technology and innovation-oriented business models and we continue to grow our portfolio. This investment was executed through a dedicated GSYF (Venture Capital Investment Fund) issued by Re-Pie. Having opened its office in Germany at the end of 2022, Ikas is well-positioned to hit its target of becoming one of the leading brands in Europe in its vertical by 2030.”

Wiebke Schloemer, Director for Türkiye and Central Asia at IFC, spoke about ikas’s impactful innovation, noting, “Boosting innovation and the growth of smaller businesses, particularly women-owned and-led businesses, is a priority for IFC,” she stated. “ikas’ innovative software has the potential to transform e-commerce in Türkiye, enabling smaller businesses to access new markets, boost their online sales and productivity, and better adapt to the rapidly changing business landscape.”

Namoğlu revealed the strategic plans post-funding, commenting, “We intend to leverage the new funding to expedite our international expansion. While this round of investment significantly excites us, it also serves as a reminder that we are just at the beginning of our journey, with much work ahead.“

In a groundbreaking move, ZES and electrip, both initiatives under Electrip Global Ltd, have teamed up with Hubject, the global leader in electric vehicle (EV) charging networks, to expand their e-roaming capabilities.

ZES, a frontrunner among Turkish charge point operators, and electrip, a burgeoning force in the European CPO landscape, have announced a strategic partnership with Hubject, the top global provider of EV charging networks. The agreement, concluded on 21st March by İ. Sinan Ak, CEO of Electrip Global Ltd, and Christian Hahn, CEO of Hubject, integrates approximately 4000 ZES stations in Turkey and electrip’s networks across Europe, including Italy, France, Bulgaria, Greece, Croatia, Montenegro, and Poland, into Hubject’s extensive e-roaming network. This collaboration aims to facilitate a more integrated and convenient charging experience for EV drivers, offering them access to a wide network of e-mobility service providers throughout Europe.

Reflecting on the partnership, İ. Sinan Ak, CEO of Electrip Global Ltd, stated: “We launched ZES in 2018 to support electric vehicle owners in Turkey with our intra and intercity charging stations, and recently introduced “electrip” in Europe to speed up the electric vehicle revolution. As state-of-the-art brands, we are glad to sign this valuable partnership with Hubject. This collaboration will help us to make electric vehicles more accessible and usable throughout Turkey and European countries. This is an essential part of our overall plan to reduce carbon emissions and protect our planet with our contribution to the expansion of e-mobility ecosystem.”

Christian Hahn, CEO of Hubject, also shared his excitement: “We’re happy to welcome ZES and electrip into the inter-charge CPO network. This partnership will help them to strengthen their infrastructure in the countries where they operate. It means thousands of EV drivers will be able to easily find and use ZES and electrip charging stations and others that are part of Hubject’s e-roaming network, which in turn is a big step in the right direction of encouraging drivers to switch to electric.”

This partnership represents a significant step towards improving the EV charging infrastructure, making electric vehicles a more viable option for drivers across Europe.

The concept of office security in the modern day is not just about the physical; it’s about the digital and a few more things. So, let’s show you several different approaches to enhance your office’s security.

Implementing Access Control Systems

Limiting access is a critical component of office security. To do this effectively, consider the size of the office, the level of security needed, and your budget. There are various access control systems, such as biometrics, key cards, and proximity readers.

Proximity readers are an intuitive approach to office security as they allow users to access areas without inserting or swiping cards. They are designed to be more secure than traditional access cards, using radio waves for communication and advanced encryption and authentication protocols. While small, they are cost-effective and easy to program, making them ideal for facilities with high turnover rates.

Enhancing Physical Safety

There are several different components you should follow to enhance overall physical safety. You should implement access control and visitor management systems. Still, you must thoroughly assess existing security measures to identify weaknesses and areas that need improvement.

Improving physical security in your office can involve additional layers of security, such as security cameras and sensors. Still, you should also ensure that security protocols are updated regularly to address evolving physical threats and the office’s vulnerabilities.

Scheduling routine reviews can ensure that you develop the most appropriate and up-to-date countermeasures to avoid potential risks while maintaining a culture of respect for office security within the company. Additionally, fostering a culture of accountability and personal investment in physical safety among your employees is another way to ensure that everybody understands the importance of security in the bigger picture.

There are things that we can do to help employees in simple ways:

• Emphasise the importance of adhering to regulations by showcasing the possible outcomes of not following the rules.
• Meticulous door-locking practices, especially about rooms and offices that house sensitive information.
• Encouraging open communication can be an excellent tool for overall corporate culture, but in terms of security, it is doubly important.
• A strict protocol ensures employees understand what to do if they are party to something compromising their business’s security is paramount.

Improving Employee Awareness

Ensuring your office is secure is more than just having to do with security systems. Employee awareness also plays a vital role in enhancing office security, and training is essential to promoting a culture where security becomes a priority for all employees, making them more engaged and compliant. However, it can also help reduce the likelihood of costly security mistakes, which can minimise the risk of data breaches and other security incidents.

When an employee is better equipped to make an informed decision and act promptly in the face of security threats, they are more likely to report incidents promptly, enabling quicker responses to security incidents and, therefore, minimising their overall impact. Employees should be aware of the common threats to a business’s security, such as leaking sensitive information, but it’s also essential for an employee to understand and identify insider threats.

Employee fraud is one major breach of office security that can be very detrimental to an organisation. Therefore, an employee should understand what employee fraud looks like while also knowing how to report this properly without feeling they are compromising themselves.

Improving Digital Security

Digital security is critical because of the high volume of sensitive information. Protecting confidential information with restricted access and encryption techniques to shield digital data is essential.

It is also vital to regularly update software to include security patches and use VPNs (Virtual Private Networks) where necessary. It allows for secure remote work, encrypts the traffic, and protects against malicious acts

The task of securing an office is about more than just one strategy. It is critical to combine several different approaches. Every office can be an open goal due to various factors, whether a lack of physical security, ineffective digital strategies, or a lack needing understanding of their employees. The latter can devastate a business as fraudulent activities from the inside are just as detrimental. Therefore, if you want to improve your office’s security, a combination of tactics will make all the difference.

If you do business online, chances are your business relies on SEO to stay discoverable amongst an ever-growing sea of content. Over the past two years, Google released and polished the Helpful Content Update (HCU), which refines how the search giant values websites online. Like all core updates, it dethroned some sites and lifted others. Now, Google’s Search Liaison clarifies what those affected should do.

The Helpful Content Update

Since 2022, Google started releasing Helpful Content Updates designed to limit cynical content. That is, content created to satisfy search engine metrics without being valuable, or helpful, to the reader. The HCU establishes a site-wide signal depending on how helpful its pages are.

It primarily targeted written and reviewer content. After all, there are many businesses online and Google wanted to avoid wrongly painting an industry where the draw isn’t written content, but things like games or video content. Take iGaming, where a page will have a thorough rundown of how the game works. However, when someone wants to play Slingo Deal or No Deal slot, the main search intention is to start the game hosted on the page. This means the search intention is easier to solve than, for example, a review of a product or a complex breakdown of a scientific phenomenon. Likewise, UX is also taken into account after the 2023 HCU, but crawlers know how to discern between the front page of YouTube and the catalogue page of an iGaming site, so it wouldn’t expect the same format as a news outlet site.

Search intentions are very important for the HCU and Google’s SEO moderation strategy at large. After its initial launch in August of 2022, the HCU received a substantial update in September 2023 that clarified Google’s stance on AI content. Between those updates, Google also added that extra E to E-A-T, so helpful content is now judged by its Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness, in that order.

Google’s Helpful Content Advice

Now in 2024, Google’s SearchLiaison account on X is still hard at work demystifying the HCU and its rippling effects in the SEO industry. The account is run by Danny Sullivan, an accomplished SEO expert who has been tipping Google’s algorithmic scales since 1997. Since 2017, he has lent his expertise to the search engine as its official point of contact for search-based queries.

On March 22nd, Sullivan was tagged by a food blogger who was having trouble identifying poorly performing pages. Fixing low-performing pages is a great way to improve a site’s SEO profile quickly and effectively. However, all her pages experienced a drop due to those initial unhelpful pages.

We had this in our Search Central blog post, but it’s probably worth highlighting that the helpful content system of old is much different now:https://t.co/76vrohZb4K

“Just as we use multiple systems to identify reliable information, we have enhanced our core ranking systems to…

— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) March 22, 2024

In Sullivan’s response, he clarified something about the HCU that some SEO experts on X had yet to catch up with. Referring to the helpful content ranking system, “there’s no longer one signal or system used to do this” and later “our core ranking systems are primarily designed to work on the page level.” Put simply, the HCU has evolved beyond its original site-wide signals and evaluates on a page-by-page basis instead.

Sullivan’s follow-up advice was to arm up with the HCU FAQ and manually evaluate pages yourself. If you write your own pages, you should follow the example of novelists and scriptwriters by getting peers to check out the page. If evaluating a page for pure helpfulness, your friend doesn’t need to be SEO savvy to provide valuable feedback.