midas

Midas is a Turkish retail investment application that gives users access to Turkish and US equities, mutual funds and cryptocurrencies. It was founded in 2021 by Egem Eraslan, a former software engineer at US office retailer Staples who previously ran and owned a Turkish K-12 school built from a kindergarten funded by his grandfather. Eraslan began experimenting with AI models for stock prediction in his spare time and identified inefficiencies in the stock trading services offered by incumbent Turkish banks.

The product added Turkish equity trading in 2022, which the company describes as the inflection point for growth. As of September 2025 the platform reported more than 3.5 million users. Midas positions itself around active, high-value traders and has said it plans to add 24-hour access to US markets five days a week, introduce derivatives, and expand its crypto offering to include decentralised finance products and staking. Longer term, management has stated an ambition to serve broader everyday financial needs, comparable to the superapp model pursued by Revolut and to the moves by European investment platforms such as Trade Republic and Scalable Capital into banking services.

Founding story

Egem Eraslan worked as a software engineer at Staples in the US before returning to Turkey to take charge of a school construction project financed by his grandfather. He ran the institution as principal, handling operations, finance and HR, and grew it from a small kindergarten into a K-12 school with more than 1,000 students, taking full ownership after five years. While experimenting with AI models for stock prediction in his spare time, he concluded that the trading services offered by incumbent banks were inefficient, and founded Midas in 2021.

Business model

Midas operates a retail brokerage app. It charges zero commission on trades of Turkish equities, a model comparable to Robinhood's, which the company credits for much of its popularity. Monetisation comes instead from specialised trading products, notably margin lending, and from commissions on US stock trades, which the CEO says contribute significantly to revenue. The company has not disclosed exact fee percentages or financials.

Revenue is derived from margin lending against customer portfolios, commissions charged on US equity trades, and planned percentage-based fees on derivatives products; Turkish equity trading is commission-free.

Traction

More than 3.5 million users as of September 2025; net revenue rose tenfold between 2022 and 2023 and more than doubled over the following 12 months, though the company declined to disclose exact financials. Cumulative funding exceeds $140m.

Latest developments

Following the August 2025 Series B, Midas said it planned to add 24-hour access to US markets five days per week, introduce derivatives products, and expand its crypto offering into DeFi products and staking, with a stated three-year goal of having the majority of people in Turkey use it for their financial needs.