Basak Tetikoz

ARI Teknokent, which is the technology park of Istanbul Technical University, is one of the leading technology parks in İstanbul, Türkiye. ARI aims to be a global technology development area by providing a proper environment and opportunities to enable technology companies and entrepreneurs to develop and commercialize technologies and contribute to technological development in Türkiye and the success of generating entrepreneurial ideas. ARI Teknokent was founded on an area of 624.318,97 m2 with 10 buildings, enabling over 5500 successful R&D projects and $2 Billion in exports to contribute to the national economy. ARI Teknokent carries out various programs, ITU Cekirdek, ITU Magnet, Innogate, and ITU Seed. ITU Cekirdek is the Incubation Center for entrepreneurs who want to turn their ideas into commercial products or services. ITU Magnet is the Advanced-Stage Entrepreneurship Center for entrepreneurs and start-ups that succeeded in turning their ideas into products. Innogate is the International Accelerator Program, for companies that are to introduce their products to the global market. ITU Seed is an accelerator program for foreign startups that wants to enter the world market through Türkiye. ITU Çekirdek- the incubation center of ARI Teknokent has been placed in 1st place among Incubation Centers in the world by the UBI Global Index in 2023. To date, more than 11,000 entrepreneurs have been supported, 1,600 startups have been established, 10.500 + jobs have been provided, 200M€ turnover has been achieved, and 270M€ early-stage investment has been received by ITU Çekirdek start-ups. For more than 20 years, ARI Teknokent has been supporting the technology development of tech companies and entrepreneurs and offering the most suitable environment and opportunities for commercializing their technologies. ARI Teknokent delivers various programs for companies and entrepreneurs in the ecosystem including Incubation Centers, Advanced-Stage Entrepreneurship Centers, and International Accelerator Programs. On the other hand, ITU ARI Teknokent organizes Innogate Global Acceleration Program for startups to maintain global customer relationships who target technology export with the support of different governmental organizations. As ARI Teknokent we have a proven range of networks which include 500 mentors and trainers, 40+ stakeholders/investors, and a wide range of network connections in both public and private institutions. Each year, ARI Teknokent runs numerous workshops, coaching sessions, demo days, and mentorship sessions on a wide range of topics. ARI Teknokent has a strategy to contribute to the digitalization of the Turkish start-ups in the ecosystem. According to the results of the Turkish Artificial Intelligence Initiative (TRAI)’s mapping in Türkiye in 2023, out of 325 AI startups 137 start-ups working on AI solutions are located in ARI Teknokent. This revealed that %42 of Türkiye's AI sector is supported by us, which confirms the explicit success of the programs running by our technology park.  Artificial intelligence initiatives operating at ITU ARI Teknokent play an important role in raising awareness in the field of digital transformation in Turkey and contributing to the development of the sector. In ARI Teknokent we are hosting a wide range of startups working on AI solutions. These are focusing on the following technologies; machine vision technology, machine learning, prediction and data analytics, chatbots and conversational artificial intelligence, natural language processing, optimizations, robotic process automation, autonomous vehicles, search engines and search assistants, smart platforms, Internet of Things and generative artificial intelligence.