PR95754

ISTANBUL, April 29, 2022, /PRNewswire=KYODO JBN/--

Arcelik aims for global leadership by expanding its R&D and innovation

collaborations on a global scale with the Garage Innovation Hub. Arcelik  

Garage Innovation Hub, a growing global open innovation platform, has

interacted with more than 2,000 partners, scouted more than 1800 start-ups, and

developed cooperation with more than 80 startups.

Garage Innovation Hub organized an Open Innovation Day with the participation

of a large number of start-ups, business leaders and investors from around the

world in order to contribute to the dissemination of the open innovation

culture.

Arcelik's Chief Strategy & Digital Officer Utku Barýs Pazar stated that:

"As a growing global innovation platform, together with our nearly 2,000

stakeholders, including mentors, investors, universities, and entrepreneurs

from all over the world; we provide business development, access to financial

support and mentorship to entrepreneurs, starting from the idea stage. On the

path to becoming one of the leading open innovation platforms on a global

scale, we have set important goals such as supporting the incorporation of new

ideas in many fields such as sustainability, artificial intelligence, AR/VR,

marketing and production technologies, healthcare, in each of the 146 countries

where we operate in the next 5 years. As we continue to provide startups with

access to financial support, we will further increase our contribution to the

ecosystem by partnering with regional venture capital funds. In February 2022,

we took our first step in this direction and became a limited partner in the

500 Startups, a globally acclaimed venture capital fund, and in April, we

joined the latest fund managed by Hoxton Ventures, one of the top venture

capital funds in Europe."

As one of the spearheads across the world to spread the open innovation

culture, Arcelik aims for global leadership with the Garage Innovation Hub.

Arcelik Garage Innovation Hub, which has interacted with more than 2,000

partners since its establishment in 2017, has provided 40 entrepreneurs with

access to 8 million TL grant aid, and training and mentoring support to 274

entrepreneurs to date. With its incubation activities, it has supported more

than 80 startups to develop business ideas.

Garage Innovation Hub aims to transform innovative ideas into products and

projects by creating a mutual sharing ecosystem through entrepreneurship,

innovation programs and events it carries out inside and outside the company.

It plays a facilitating role to enable the ecosystem to benefit from knowledge,

experience and connections among ecosystem players such as startups, mentors,

investors and relevant non-governmental organizations, private and public

institution representatives.

Garage Innovation Hub, which designs innovation and entrepreneurship programs,

also works to develop new technologies and business models that fall outside of

Arcelik's core competencies.

Garage Innovation Hub, a growing open innovation platform, aims to contribute

to the development of the ecosystem in line with its global leadership goal in

the field of open innovation. Garage Innovation Hub brought together innovative

thinkers, companies, start-ups and investors from all over the world at the

Open Innovation Day, which is organized for the first time this year.

Stating that the Open Innovation Day is a platform for stimulating discussions

with the participation of important players within the ecosystem, Arcelik Chief

Strategy & Digital Officer Utku Barýþ Pazar said "In a short period of 5 years,

we have worked together with a large number of universities, NGOs, institutions

and organizations from all over the world that support innovation. Innovation

is not a process that belongs to an institution or a function alone. Open

innovation platforms such as the Garage Innovation Hub can enable ideas to come

to life, paving the way for innovations that benefit humanity. We aim to bring

more and more ideas to life, wherever possible."

Garage Innovation Hub Partners with Venture Capital Funds

Talking about Arcelik's open innovation approach, Utku Barýþ Pazar said: "We

started to develop Startup Friendly Applications to improve our start-up

collaborations. We say "Dare, Connect, Venture, Value". Our goal is to support

start-ups in each of the 146 countries where we operate.  On the path to

becoming one of the leading open innovation platforms globally, we continue to

support entrepreneurs in reaching grants through programs such as BIGG3. Garage

Innovation Hub also took another step to provide capital support to

entrepreneurs and became a partner to venture capital funds. We took our first

step in this direction and became a limited partner in 500 Startups, a globally

acclaimed venture capital fund, and joined the latest fund managed by Hoxton

Ventures, one of the top venture capital funds in Europe."

As part of the United Nations Generation Equality Forum commitments, Arcelik

plans to reach 7000 entrepreneurs, 5000 of whom are women, by 2026, and support

them in reaching financial support of approximately 5 million dollars, with the

Garage Innovation Hub.

Click to learn more about Arcelik Garage Innovation Hub and to develop

collaboration.

https://www.garageinnovationhub.com/

About Arcelik

With over 40,000 employees throughout the world, Arcelik's global operations

including sales and marketing offices in 49 countries, and 28 production

facilities in 9 countries with 12 brands (Arcelik, Beko, Grundig, Blomberg,

ElektraBregenz, Arctic, Leisure, Flavel, Defy, Altus, Dawlance, Voltas Beko).

As Europe's second-largest white goods company by market share (based on

volumes), Arcelik reached a consolidated turnover of 6.5 billion Euros in 2021.

Arcelik's 29 R&D and Design Centers & Offices across the globe, are home to

over 2,000 researchers and hold more than 3,000 international patent

applications to date. In 2021, Arcelik achieved the highest score in the DHP

Household Durables category for the 3rd year in a row in the Dow Jones

Sustainability Index of the S&P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment. In

accordance with PAS 2060 Carbon Neutrality Standard, Arcelik became

carbon-neutral in Scope 1 and 2 in global manufacturing in 2019 and 2020 with

its own carbon credits. Through its leadership position in sustainability and

credible decarbonization roadmap for achieving net zero, Arcelik became the

first and only company from its industry to receive the Terra Carta Seal by HRH

Prince of Wales. Arcelik's mission is 'Respecting the World, Respected

Worldwide.'

www.arcelikglobal.com/en　

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SOURCE: Arcelik