Insider is a marketing technology and customer-experience platform that unifies customer data from online and offline sources and delivers individualised experiences across channels including web, mobile app, email, SMS, push, WhatsApp, and paid media.
Founded in 2012 in Istanbul by Hande Cilingir, Serhat Soyuerel, Muharrem Derinkök, and three co-founders, Insider has grown into one of the largest marketing-technology companies built outside of North America and Europe, serving more than 1,200 enterprise customers worldwide including brands such as Samsung, Toyota, Adidas, IKEA, Virgin, Vodafone, and CNN.
In early 2022 the company raised a $121 million Series D led by Qatar Investment Authority and Riverwood Capital, achieving unicorn status at a $1.2 billion-plus valuation and making it the first Turkish-founded unicorn led by a woman CEO.
Insider is recognised as a leader in Gartner's Magic Quadrant for Personalization Engines and employs more than 1,000 people across offices in Istanbul, Singapore, London, New York, Paris, Tokyo, Sydney, and Dubai. The product is increasingly positioned as an AI-native customer experience platform.
Insider's corporate structure is a modern template for how a Turkish-founded SaaS business can go fully global while keeping its engineering and operating core in Istanbul. The operating company was incorporated in 2012 as Useinsider Yazılım Ticaret A.Ş. in Istanbul.
As institutional investors entered - Sequoia Capital India, Riverwood Capital, Wamda Capital, and Esas Private Equity across successive rounds - the founders restructured into an offshore holding. Unlike Getir's Dutch B.V.
or Peak's Luxembourg stack, Insider chose Singapore as its ultimate parent, with Useinsider Pte. Ltd. holding 100% of the Turkish operating A.Ş. and each international subsidiary (Insider UK Ltd, Insider Tech Inc. in the US, Japan KK, France SAS, DIFC entity in the UAE, and others) sitting directly under the Singapore parent.
Singapore was chosen for three overlapping reasons: robust IP protection under common-law precedent, an extensive network of double-tax treaties that includes Turkey and most of Insider's customer countries, and its status as an accepted holding jurisdiction for top-tier VCs selling into Asia-Pacific - where Insider has an unusually strong customer base.
The company's $121 million Series D in February 2022, led by the Qatar Investment Authority with participation from Riverwood Capital, was executed at the Singapore parent level, with Qatari and US investors subscribing for preferred shares under Singapore law, then using intra-group capital movements to fund the Turkish operating entity.
Insider's employee stock option plan was set up early as a Singapore-level plan, meaning employees hold options over the offshore holding rather than the Turkish sub - critical for achieving tax-efficient exits.
For founders, Insider offers a blueprint that works especially well if your customer base is spread across APAC, MENA, and EMEA rather than concentrated in the United States: Singapore parent, Turkish engineering sub, country-level sales subsidiaries, ESOP at parent level. It is a cleaner multi-jurisdictional playbook than the Cayman or Dutch alternatives for a company with a truly global footprint.
Insider's ultimate holding company is registered in Singapore, as Useinsider Pte. Ltd., but its operational and engineering centre of gravity is in Istanbul, at the 42 Maslak business complex in the Sarıyer district. The Istanbul campus houses the bulk of Insider's engineering, product, data science, customer success, and executive functions.
In addition to Istanbul and Singapore, Insider operates offices in London, Paris, New York, Tokyo, Sydney, Jakarta, Dubai, Riyadh, and several other cities across APAC, MENA, and EMEA. CEO and co-founder Hande Cilingir has historically split her time between Istanbul, Singapore, and London. The company's culture is widely regarded as Turkish-origin, global-operating.
Insider is a privately held company. Its cap table includes its six founders (Hande Cilingir, Serhat Soyuerel, Muharrem Derinkök, and three co-founders), together with institutional investors such as Sequoia Capital India, Riverwood Capital, Wamda Capital, Esas Private Equity, Endeavor Catalyst, 212 Capital Partners, and the Qatar Investment Authority, which led the $121 million Series D in February 2022.
Employees hold stock options through a Singapore-level employee share ownership plan. Hande Cilingir serves as CEO and is widely credited as the company's public face; the founder team retains meaningful equity, with no single institutional shareholder holding a majority position.
No. Insider is a privately held company and is not listed on any stock exchange. At its February 2022 Series D round the company was valued at more than $1.2 billion, earning its place as one of the most valuable Turkish-founded companies and the first Turkish unicorn led by a woman CEO.
An IPO has been publicly discussed by the company's leadership as a medium-term goal, with NASDAQ, the London Stock Exchange, and Singapore SGX each mentioned as potential venues in different interviews. If it happens, the listing will almost certainly use the Singapore parent Useinsider Pte. Ltd. as the listable entity rather than the Turkish operating A.Ş.
Insider operates a marketing technology platform that helps enterprise brands unify their customer data and deliver personalised, AI-driven customer experiences across digital channels.
The platform ingests data from websites, mobile apps, CRM systems, point-of-sale systems, email providers, and third-party sources into a single customer view, then activates that data across web personalisation, mobile app messaging, email, SMS, push, WhatsApp, paid media, and increasingly AI-generated conversational channels.
Insider is consistently positioned as a leader by Gartner, IDC, and Forrester in the personalisation and cross-channel marketing categories. Its customers are predominantly large enterprises in retail, financial services, travel, telecommunications, and media, spanning more than 30 countries across APAC, MENA, Europe, and the Americas.
