Pegasus and İTÜ Sign Major Cooperation Agreement

Under the leadership of ITU ARI Teknokent, Turkey's entrepreneurship and innovation hub, İTÜ Çekirdek—recognized as the world's leading university incubation centre and a partner in entrepreneurs' journey since 2011—has signed a partnership with Pegasus Airlines.

Pegasus Airlines will serve as a "Gold Partner" to İTÜ Çekirdek, supporting technology-focused startups and awarding successful ventures on the stage of the Big Bang Startup Challenge, to be held on 18-19 December this year. 

ITU ARI Teknokent and Pegasus Airlines have signed a partnership within İTÜ Çekirdek, which provides comprehensive support to entrepreneurs by opening global market channels for their products and services and designing and delivering all services for rapid growth. As a "Gold Partner," Pegasus will support technology-focused startups through customer engagement, networking, sector knowledge sharing and mentoring, as well as offering financial awards. Through this partnership, successful startups will be awarded by Pegasus at the Big Bang Startup Challenge, Turkey's largest entrepreneurship event, to take place on 18-19 December at Uniq Istanbul. Pegasus will also focus on startups developing technologies suited to smart living for the future, in addition to aviation and transportation-related ventures at İTÜ Çekirdek. 

Pegasus will support entrepreneurs through its Innovation Centre

Barış Fındık, Deputy General Manager of Pegasus Information Technologies, commented on the matter as follows: "At Pegasus, we invest in innovative technologies through our Innovation Centre to make a difference in passenger experience and operational efficiency. Supporting entrepreneurs' growth journey through the İTÜ Çekirdek partnership is an important part of these efforts. We thank İTÜ Çekirdek and wish all entrepreneurs success."

"We grow stronger with our partners"

Prof. Dr. Attila Dikbaş, General Director of ITU ARI Teknokent, commented on the partnership as follows: "At ITU ARI Teknokent, we believe that an important part of the key to building a strong and sustainable ecosystem lies in the partnerships we establish with our stakeholders. Together with valued partners like Pegasus Airlines who support entrepreneurship with sectoral strength, we increase the added value of our programmes, accelerate the success journey of our entrepreneurs by offering them a broader vision and support. With 13 years of experience at our İTÜ Çekirdek Incubation Centre, we expand our impact each year, providing our entrepreneurs with a journey from idea to global scale. As İTÜ Çekirdek, we have nurtured 4,500 technology startups and contributed to the incorporation of 1,600 of them. We have supported these startups in creating employment for 11,000 people and securing investments exceeding USD 270 million. By strengthening our collective power with our partners, we will achieve many more successes together."