Evveko helps owners navigate apartment-building renewal by connecting them with verified contractors and making proposals easier to compare
Could you introduce yourself and Evveko and tell us what inspired you to start the company?
I’m Yusuf Kara, founder of Evveko. Evveko is an Istanbul platform that helps the owners of an apartment building go through urban renewal (kentsel dönüşüm) together: they apply for their building, verified contractors reach them, and each owner can see what a proposal means for his or her own flat. The idea came from watching renewal decisions stall for years, not because the numbers were bad, but because a dozen owners could not compare proposals on the same basis or trust the company across the table.
Your background is in civil engineering. Which experiences made you realize that apartment-building renewal needed a better coordination process?
Working in construction, I saw the same meeting again and again: one contractor, many owners, a proposal expressed as a percentage split of flats, and very little shared information. Owners did not know their building’s zoning rights, their own share of floor area, or how to compare two offers. The technical part of renewal is well understood in Turkey; the coordination part is not.
What are the biggest challenges owners face when trying to agree on a renewal project?
Istanbul renewal projects typically need the agreement of the owners who hold a majority of the shares, so a building is only as fast as its most hesitant owner. The recurring issues are information asymmetry, fear of choosing an unreliable contractor, rent and relocation costs during construction, and simple uncertainty about “what will my new flat look like and what will I pay?”.
How does Evveko work, from an owner’s application to comparing proposals?
An owner or building manager applies online in about two minutes. After a short phone conversation, the application is published on the platform in one of two models. In the direct-contact model, contractors whose documents have been approved by Evveko can message the owners through the platform; owners’ phone numbers stay hidden. In nine districts we also run a managed-dossier service: we prepare the building’s zoning information, unit list and floor areas, and contractors submit proposals on the same data, so owners compare like with like. Our calculators turn construction prices and the flat allocation into an estimate for each owner.
How does Evveko check contractors before they can contact owners?
A contractor cannot send a proposal or a first message until its tax registration and its construction contractor authorization certificate (yapı müteahhidi yetki belgesi), which is issued by the Ministry, have been reviewed and approved by our team. We describe this honestly as a document check; it is not a guarantee of the contractor’s work, and we always encourage owners to review contracts with their own lawyer.
How does your business model work?
Owners never pay. Contractors can use the platform for free with one new application contact per month; paid monthly packages give them more contact rights plus tools such as specification, contract and flat-allocation modules. In managed-dossier projects, Evveko earns a success commission from the contractor when the renewal contract is signed.
What have you learned from operating across all 39 districts of Istanbul?
Demand is everywhere, but the market is very local: land values, building ages and contractor networks change from one neighbourhood to the next. That is why we open applications city-wide but keep the hands-on dossier service in nine districts where we know the ground well.
What traction has Evveko achieved so far?
Since we started taking applications at the end of 2025, around 140 buildings have applied, close to 600 people have registered and about 95 contractor firms have created accounts. Our renewal guides reach over 3,000 visitors a month from Google search, and our Android app is live. Renewal decisions take many months, and we do not yet have a completed renewal delivered through the platform; our focus now is increasing the number of verified contractors who actively respond to owners.
What have been the biggest challenges in building trust?
Trust has to be earned on both sides at once. Owners are cautious because the sector has well-known horror stories; contractors are cautious because they have been asked for many “free” offers that went nowhere. Being transparent about what we check and what we do not, and not charging owners anything, has been essential.
How is Evveko financed?
Evveko is founder-funded so far. We are alumni of Emlak Konut’s PropTech programme and are based at BTM, the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce’s innovation and incubation centre. We will consider external investment once the contractor side of the marketplace is repeatable.
What are the next milestones, and could the model expand beyond Istanbul?
Our next milestones are growing the pool of document-verified contractors, reaching our first signed renewal contracts through managed dossiers, and bringing document upload to the mobile app. Urban renewal is a national programme in Turkey, with major cities such as Izmir, Bursa and Ankara facing the same challenge, so expansion within Turkey is the natural next step. Multi-owner building renewal is a problem in many earthquake-prone and ageing cities, so the model could travel later on.
Three pieces of advice for PropTech founders in an emerging market?
First, the software is the easy part; the offline process around it is the product, so spend time in the meetings your users sit in. Second, be precise about your promises: in real estate, one overclaim can cost you the trust you spent a year building. Third, watch the side of the marketplace that is harder to win; for us it has been the contractors, not the owners.
Image Yusuf Kara Founder, Evveko Picture credit: Emlak Konut – Anahtar Fikirler Summit
Thank you Yusuf Kara for the Interview
Statements of the author and the interviewee do not necessarily represent the editors and the publisher opinion again.
