75 percent of Sabancı’s investments are in the new economy

Sabancı Holding has signed an important university-industry cooperation that will be an ‘innovation bridge’ between Turkey and Europe. Sabancı Technology Center, which was established in Munich, Germany, carried the R&D, technology and sustainable product development competence of Çimsa and Kordsa, two of the group companies, to the international arena. Located within the Technical University of Munich (TUM) campus, Sabancı Technology Center will also be one of Europe’s iconic platforms in the field of university-industry cooperation. With the joint R&D studies to be carried out at the center, the productization and commercialization of bright ideas will be ensured.

Speaking at the opening of the center, Sabancı Holding CEO Cenk Alper underlined that within Sabancı, they code innovation as a company culture, not as an investment item. Alper said, “Innovation is undoubtedly one of the strongest muscles of the Sabancı Group. We are proud to be a Group that has pioneered Turkey in the field of R&D. Until today, we had a total of 7 R&D and technology centers within our Construction Materials and Industry Groups, 6 in the country and 1 abroad. “With Sabancı Technology Center, we are increasing this number to 8 and realizing our first center in Europe,” he said.

WE WILL DEVELOP TAILOR-MEDIATED PRODUCTS

Stating that Sabancı Technology Center, which has 8 different laboratories and employees from 6 nationalities, will develop high-tech, ‘tailor-made’ products for sectors that shape the material revolution in the world, such as advanced building materials, composite technologies, construction reinforcement, Alper said, “Çimsa and Kordsa These products, which will be produced in factories in Turkey, will be offered to the European market by our teams at Sabancı Technology Center. “This model, which will serve our promise of ‘uniting Turkey and the world’, will also be one of the driving forces of Turkey’s value-added export mobilization,” he said.

Alper underlined that they are continuing in line with the investment plan they announced at the beginning of 2022.

INVESTED 33 BILLION IN 9 MONTHS

Cenk Alper stated the following: “In parallel with our previously announced investment strategy, we direct 25 percent of our non-bank investments to our existing business lines and 75 percent to the fields of energy and climate technologies, advanced material technologies and digital technologies, which we call ‘new economy’.” . The total investment we made in the first 9 months of 2023 reached 33.3 billion TL. This figure shows that our investments increased by 124 percent in TL terms compared to the same period last year. “In the same period, we made 75 percent of our investments in the new economy, in line with our strategy.”

BROUGHT UNIVERSITY-INDUSTRY COOPERATION TO EUROPE

Stating that university-industry collaborations have a very important place in Sabancı’s innovation approach, Cenk Alper said, “At this point, Sabancı University is the main factor that distinguishes Sabancı from other Communities. The most concrete example of our work in this field is our Composite Technologies Center of Excellence (KTMM), which was implemented in cooperation with Sabancı University-Kordsa and is one of the few university-industry collaborations in Europe in the field of composites. “Other companies of our Group embrace our work in this field at the highest level with different cooperation models,” he said.

Invested in more than 30 start-ups in the last two years

“While our new economic focus supports the large-scale growth of the Sabancı Group, it also enables us to create the Sabancı of the Future,” said Cenk Alper, adding, “In solving the ‘impossible trio’ in energy, in pioneering the ‘material revolution’ that shapes the world, in artificial intelligence, quantum It paves the way for us to direct technological trends such as informatics and to be developers of disruptive innovations, not customers. Since 2020, the number of funds and start-ups we have invested in has exceeded 30. “Approximately half of them are in Turkey and half are abroad,” he said.

We spread our innovation power to the world

Pointing out the harmony of Sabancı Technology Center with Kordsa’s global growth strategy, Kordsa CEO İbrahim Özgür Yıldırım said, “Being close to the customer has been one of Kordsa’s main principles since the day it was founded. For us, being close to the customer and spreading the power of innovation in different parts of the world; It means creating value for the customer with the power of technology and innovation. Two out of every three aircraft tires in the world; As Kordsa, we reinforce one in every three automobile tires. “We are carrying our leadership in the field of tire reinforcement to the field of advanced materials,” he said.