Last week, we have held the ecosystem meetup of the InvenDO Up Program. Powered by Doğuş Group and Hackquarters, the InvenDO Up program will create the opportunity and environment for start-ups to test their products, work with Doğuş Group companies and help scale your business in less than six months. Early-stage startups that can provide a solution for sectors such as automotive, construction, energy, real estate, technology, hospitality & retail, media, and new initiatives to move the innovation strategy of Doğuş Group forward. Participants will have the opportunity to partner up with Doğuş Otomotiv, Doğuş Teknoloji, Doğuş Yeme-İçme ve Parekende, Doğuş Yayın Grup, Doğuş Yeni Teknolojiler. In the meetup, the aim was to get more details on Doğuş Group’s innovation strategy and insightful information about the InvenDO Up. 

The meetup started with the opening speech of Kaan Akın from Hackquarters and Çisem Paksoy from Doğuş Group. Kaan emphasized the importance of the innovation strategy of companies to boost corporate innovation culture. The significance of innovation strategy and open innovation makes companies think about organizing new programs. Hackquarters’ position in improving the innovation strategy of the companies here gains great importance. 

In Çisem’s speech, she told us about the approach of Doğuş Group to innovative ideas and digital transformation. “At Doğuş Group, we created InvenDO UpProgram to improve the entrepreneurship muscle of our teammates. We gave training to them and boost new initiatives in our company. Some of them are going even further. We have been intending to organize InvenDO Up Program for a long time.” In InvenDO Up, startups will get a lot of benefits including PoC opportunities and access to global investor networks. 

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The event continued with the welcoming speech of Doğuş Teknoloji CEO Semih İncedayı. He highlighted how entrepreneurial Doğuş Group is. Now, through the innovation strategy of Doğuş Group, they are applying open innovation practices among Doğuş Group companies. “We are watching all the latest technological advancements around the world and we are looking forward to the ways how we can implement them in our companies to get into new necessities of the world. For example, we have small teams working on new technologies such as NFTs and blockchain to create extra value for our stakeholders.” 

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After Semih İncedayı’s speech, the panel between Aytek Olçay and Mehmet Fatih Türker from Doğuş Otomotiv came to the scene. Aytek and Fatih talked about the story of D-ONE. D-ONE is a good example of an initiative arising from Doğuş Group’s innovation strategy. With the expertise of Doğuş Oto, D-ONE is an end-to-end smart management system for vehicle fleets. “Automotive industry is one the most disrupted industries in the world. Before the digital transformation, vehicles were just hardware. Now, they are interconnected digital machines. In Doğuş Oto, we are developing new systems to adopt digital transformation in the automotive sector.” Aytek underlined. 

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The meetup then continued with Digital Vision of Doğuş Group session of Can Birsay from Doğuş Yayın Grup. Through the innovation strategy of Doğuş Group, Doğuş Yayın launched Puhu.tv to create new value for customers. Can told us about the reflection of their digital vision on Puhu.tv. “We are executing our data analysis processes with a high level of meticulousness. We use anonymization techniques for customers’ data. At the same time, we are trying to provide the most relevant content to any customer.” 

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The meetup ended with the Q&A session. In the session, Çisem said, “We are open to applications from any startup; don’t hesitate to apply if you have relevant startups to the program.”

Applications are still open until the 12th of February. Apply now!