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Why Gurhan Kiziloz Is Scaling Nexus to $1.45B on His Own Terms
Global Banking & Finance Review®
Company
Most high-growth companies today are shaped, if not steered, by external capital. Gurhan Kiziloz built Nexus International by walking in the opposite direction. With $400 million in revenue posted in 2024 and a $1.45 billion target set for the coming year, the company offers a stark counterpoint to ...
Most high-growth companies today are shaped, if not steered, by external capital. Gurhan Kiziloz built Nexus International by walking in the opposite direction. With $400 million in revenue posted in 2024 and a $1.45 billion target set for the coming year, the company offers a stark counterpoint to the venture-backed model that defines much of the tech economy. For Kiziloz, avoiding external funding isn’t a rejection of capital, it’s a commitment to control, speed, and uninterrupted execution. The decision is structural, not symbolic.
“I’m too proud to borrow money,” he said with a half-smile in a recent interview. “If I can build it myself, I will.” That posture has defined Nexus’s operational ethos: fast decisions, centralized leadership, and limited friction between strategy and execution.
The platform’s growth has been driven primarily by Megaposta, Nexus’s gaming product active in Brazil’s regulated digital market. Without any institutional capital, Kiziloz has managed to build out infrastructure, acquire licenses, and execute marketing campaigns, all while maintaining 100% ownership. While the company has not released user-level metrics or market share details, the topline revenue figure suggests a customer base large enough to sustain continued expansion.
The lack of equity sharing has obvious advantages: no board-level scrutiny, no dilution, and no external veto power over product decisions or pace. For Kiziloz, it also eliminates the second-guessing that comes with institutional involvement. “We move fast. Really fast,” he said. “No approvals, no politics, no waiting. If something makes sense, we go.”
But this structure also comes with a cost. In the absence of institutional guardrails, all accountability resides with a single person. There is no portfolio to offset risk. No outside expertise to lean on. Nexus, in its current form, rises and falls on Kiziloz’s judgment.
From a macroeconomic perspective, Nexus is part of a broader trend of post-VC independence. Across sectors, a growing number of founders are choosing to build businesses with limited or no external capital, in part as a reaction to what they see as an over-financialized startup ecosystem. The appeal is clear: maintain control, grow sustainably, and own the upside.
But the success of such models is largely dependent on the founder’s ability to absorb both financial pressure and operational responsibility. For Kiziloz, that balance appears intentional. He is known for his aversion to internal bureaucracy and his preference for instinct over reflection. “If it fails, I start again,” he said, when asked about the risk of bearing full responsibility.
This kind of founder-centric model can produce speed and focus, but it also introduces concentration risk. The business is shaped entirely by one worldview. There is little margin for long-term drift, but also limited opportunity for alternative perspectives. Kiziloz’s approach, while successful in its current context, may face new tests as Nexus moves into more complex, regulated markets where collaborative governance and multi-stakeholder management are often required.
Still, the absence of external capital hasn’t limited the company’s scope. Nexus’s 2025 target of $1.45 billion suggests not just confidence in the model but also a commitment to scale under its current constraints. Whether or not that target is met, the attempt itself places Nexus in rare company, alongside a small group of firms that have reached significant revenue milestones without investor backing.
For policymakers and institutional investors, businesses like Nexus pose an interesting question: what happens when growth is no longer tied to capital markets? While most of the global startup ecosystem remains deeply dependent on venture funding, the existence of high-revenue outliers like Nexus suggests that alternative paths are not only viable but increasingly visible.
Ultimately, the story of Gurhan Kiziloz and Nexus International is less about anti-VC sentiment and more about structural choice. It is a case study in what one founder can do when equity is treated not as a bargaining chip, but as a line never crossed.
Whether this model becomes a repeatable blueprint or remains a singular feat will depend on how companies like Nexus handle scale, scrutiny, and sustainability over time. For now, it remains a striking counterexample, built not with dilution, but with conviction.
Venture capital is a type of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms to startups and small businesses with long-term growth potential.
Equity dilution occurs when a company issues new shares, reducing the ownership percentage of existing shareholders.
A business model outlines how a company creates, delivers, and captures value, detailing the products or services it offers and how it earns revenue.
A customer base refers to the group of customers who repeatedly purchase the goods or services of a business.
Operational risk is the risk of loss resulting from inadequate or failed internal processes, people, and systems, or from external events.
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