We are keen to partner up with outstanding entrepreneurs and innovative technology companies

Arda Ayvaz / Director, Strategy

Arda started his career at Bain & Company in Boston, with a focus on large-scale transformation projects for Fortune 500 clients, and Private Equity due diligence and value creation projects.  After his consulting career, he served as VP of Strategy, Corporate Development and Partnerships at Zego between 2018 and 2021. During his tenure at Zego, he led the growth strategy, acquired and integrated 3 companies, which culminated in Zego’s successful sale to Global Payments for 925 million dollars.

From 2021 to 2024, Arda served as the CEO at arabam.com, an iLab portfolio company, where he lead the successful scale-up of arabam.com operations across multiple business lines, and cemented the leadership position of the company in its vertical. As of 2024, he joined iLab as the Director of Strategy to lead group strategy and value creation across iLab portfolio, new iLab investments and operating model.

Arda graduated from Harvard University with an Honors degree in Mathematics and Economics, and earned his MBA degree from Stanford University.

Metin Ural / Manager, Strategy & Business Development

Metin joined iLab in 2021 where he helps the development of iLab’s long-term strategy and manages key initiatives across the company to drive growth. In his role, Metin is responsible with corporate strategy, M&A and venture investments and partners with operating executives to determine business priorities and develop strategies for growth. Before joining iLab, Metin worked at DOME Group as a financial advisor to number of companies in various sectors including retail, aviation, automotive, utilities and TMT. His expertise included M&A advisory in both buy and sell-side, project financing, debt restructuring and IPO. Prior to joining DOME Group, Metin worked in the Investments team at Doğuş Holding, where he was involved in several M&A transactions and privatizations in Turkey & Europe. Metin started his professional career as an investment banker in Deutsche Bank, where he advised strategic and financial investors in several industries including retail, consumer, energy and healthcare in Turkey. Metin holds MBA from NYU Stern Business School and BA in Economics and International Relations from University of Pennsylvania.

Ömür Bali / Director, Product & Data

Ömür has been at iLab since 2018 leading product management, data science, web analytics and design teams supporting all iLab brands. After graduating from Sabancı University, Ömür has worked at Doğuş Media Group and Hürriyet (one of the most important daily publications of Turkey) and technology company Commencis. Experienced in media, listing, ecommerce, airline and fintech industries, Ömür has executed several projects in product management, UX and product design. With strong leadership attitude, Ömür works with his team for developing product strategies, driving data & analytics transformation and building data-driven culture across all group companies. He also leads a high performing data science team leveraging Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML) technologies to deliver value added projects. Ömür holds master’s degree in data science from Sabancı University and MBA from Bocconi University.

Sonat Yüce / Group Head, Digital Marketing

Before joining iLab in 2020, Sonat started his career at SEM Internet Services gaining experience mainly in search engine and display network marketing ads strategies and campaign development, performance advertising, Facebook and YouTube ads strategies and campaign building. Having deep knowledge on consumer and historical performance data strategies, Sonat adds value for creating the best digital marketing plans for iLab brands. Sonat and his team works closely with brand, data and product teams to increase client satisfaction through cohesive strategies, determine realistic benchmarks and execute campaigns to gain competitive edge.

Yiğit Şenkardeş / Associate, Strategy & Business Development

Prior to joining iLab in late 2021, Yiğit was an investment banking analyst at Dome Group. He was involved in various projects for several online/offline industries including but not limited to ecommerce, consumers, industrials, and financial services. He was responsible for financial/operational modelling, sector coverages, market analysis and company valuations. He mainly advised clients on mergers and acquisitions transactions and bond issuances. Prior to Dome Group, Yiğit was an associate at Deloitte`s Valuation Services and Financial Advisory.