Countries are starting to treat founders abroad as part of their ecosystem. Not as talent they lost, but as people worth backing and bringing closer.
The public numbers show why.
Turkey's diaspora numbers
Turkey shows the shift most clearly. In 2025, startups founded by the Turkish diaspora raised $1.1B across 41 rounds and produced 3 new unicorns, according to startups.watch. In the same year, investment in startups founded inside Turkey fell 45%.
In AI the gap is sharper. A 2025 report on the Turkish AI ecosystem, covered by Türkiye Today, counted 274 active AI startups founded by Turks abroad. They raised $712M across 29 rounds in 2025, about $24M per round. AI startups based in Turkey raised $17.4M across 69 rounds, about $252K per round.
Same roots. Very different rounds.
Investors have noticed. Revo Capital raised its third fund to back founders with Turkish roots. When IFC committed $20M to that fund in March 2025, it set aside up to 10% of its capital for ventures founded by Turkish diaspora entrepreneurs.
Kazakhstan hands out a passport
Kazakhstan took a more direct route. On 30 October 2026, President Tokayev signed a decree granting citizenship to Alex Mashrabov, co-founder and CEO of Higgsfield.
Higgsfield is a US-based AI video company, co-founded in 2023 by Mashrabov and Kazakh machine learning researcher Yerzat Dulat. It was valued at $5.4B this year. When the passport was handed over, the Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Development thanked the Higgsfield team for its contribution to Kazakhstan's AI industry.
Mashrabov is not a Kazakh founder who left. But the logic is the same. A company headquartered abroad, with real ties to the country, is treated as part of the national ecosystem. The state chose to make that tie stronger.
Why the people who leave matter
The pattern is not new. In the US, immigrants founded or co-founded 455 of 775 privately held billion-dollar startups as of April 2026. That is 59%. One of them, Al Goldstein, was born in Uzbekistan and has founded 2 companies worth more than $1B.
Founders from our region are already on lists like this. They are just not building at home.
It starts with relationships
This connects to my last post. In mature markets, investors back people they already know. Diaspora investing is the clearest case of it.
A founder with roots in Baku or Almaty building in London will not apply to a local fund. They are not in any local pipeline. The only way to back them is to know them already: from university, from a program, from a first job, from the community abroad. And to stay close as they build.
That is what Revo's fund and Kazakhstan's passport have in common. Both build on ties that already exist.
What it gives a country
Done well, a connected diaspora gives a lot back.
A bridge to bigger markets. Founders abroad know how to sell in the US or Europe. Local founders learn from them, hire from their networks and follow their routes.
Money and people coming home. Founders who exit can become angels, mentors and fund LPs in the place they came from. Some build teams at home.
Brain drain becomes a network. Founders who stay close to home bring their networks with them. Emigration turns into reach.
There is a risk too. In Turkey's 2025 numbers, diaspora startups raised $1.1B while investment in local startups fell 45%. If capital only follows the founders who left, the ones who stayed get less, and the next generation has more reason to leave. Diaspora investing works best next to strong local investing, not instead of it.
The short version
Founders abroad are part of a country's ecosystem, whether it treats them that way or not.
Turkey's diaspora raised $1.1B in 1 year. Kazakhstan is pulling founders closer with citizenship. Both rest on the same thing: real ties between a country and the people building abroad.
The countries in our region that keep those ties strong will be the ones that benefit when those founders succeed.
