Top 40 Retail Angel Investors in Middle East

Ömer Aras

Hosam Arab

Firat Isbecer is an entrepreneur and a seed investor. His first venture Pozitron, a mobile software company focusing on digital banking, commerce and mobile payments, became one of the fastest growing enterprise software companies in Europe with clients across the globe. After multi years of growth and a successful international expansion, Pozitronwas acquired by London-based fin-tech star Monitise plc in 2014.After the acquisition, he joined Monitise and oversaw the company’s regional operations as the MEA Managing Director. Monitise MEA quickly became one of the most profitable business units of Monitise Group. In 2017, Monitise Group was fully acquired by the US-based, Fiserv Inc, one of the world's largest fin-tech companies with more than 50,000 employees.Shortly after the acquisition, he left Fiserv and founded his newest venture, Commencis. Commencis helps leading brands grow and scale in digital, powered by it’s Big Data, Analytics and Cloud products.In September 2019, Commencis expanded to Berlin, Germany by announcing finbyte, a joint-venture in fintech solutions. Besides Commencis, he is also an active seed investor. Member of Galata Business Angels, Turkey’s first angel investor group.After graduating from Robert College in Istanbul, Firat received his Bachelor’s Degree from Galatasaray University, and his Master’s Degree from a joint programme by Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and École Normale Supérieure in Paris.

Jonathan Doerr is the CEO of Daraz. Prior to this, Jonathan served as the managing director of Jumia Nigeria.

Nevzat Aydın is the CEO of Yemeksepeti.com, the first and biggest online food delivery portal in Turkey.Born in 1976 in İstanbul, Nevzat Aydın completed his secondary education at the Bursa Anatolian High School. Following his graduation from Boğaziçi University Department of Computer Engineering, he went to the United States where he receivedhis MBA at the University of San Francisco in Silicon Valley.During his stay in the United States, Aydın followed the latest developments on e-trade before he returned to Turkey in 2000 to launch his project, Yemeksepeti.com. Serving as the CEO of Yemeksepeti.com, Nevzat Aydın introduced a brand new dimension to e-trade in Turkey.In 2007, Yemeksepeti.com was selected the “Endeavor Entreprenur” by Endeavor Turkey. Aydin was also selected the “Most Successful Turkish Young Entrepreneur” by the CNBC-e Business magazine in 2010 for his successful work since the foundation of Yemeksepeti.com.As the founder and CEO of Yemeksepeti.com, which celebrated its 11th anniversary in 2012, he won the first prize in 2011 in the “Male Entrepreneur of the Year” category at the “Businesspeople of the Year” survey conducted by the Ekonomist magazine among nearly 3,000 business people.Aydin is a member of the Young Entrepreneurs Supreme Board of the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey, and a founding member of Galata Business Angels.Aydın was one of the 150 entrepreneurs invited from all over the world to the Entrepreneurship Summit held by US President Barack Obama on April 26-27, 2010.He was also among the speakers at the DLD (Digital-Life-Design) Conference, which is deemed as one of the world's most prestigious conferences with its content on innovation and developments in the digital world. He is also an editorial advisor of GQ Turkey, one of the 5 “dragons” of the Dragons’ Den Turkey show, and a Board Member of Trabzonspor sports club.

Tushar Ahluwalia is the Co-Founder and CEO at Razor Group.

Omar Al-Handal is the Managing director of Al Handal International Group.

Kerem Danish

Mohamad Ferej

Onder Oztarhan

Emre Kenci

Onur Gargılı

Barbaros Serdar Özbugutu worked for FIRSTDATA, and later moved to KLARNA. In 2013, he officially launched Iyzico with his Co-Founder Tahsin Isin. Iyzico is transforming the payment processing experience for businesses through its bank-integrated, fraud-protected payment platform tailored to the nuances of the Turkish market.(https://www.iyzico.com/en)

Mohammed Shaikley - Managing Partner @ Private Equity

Eilon Tirosh is a Startup Helper at SpearHealth. He attended Tel Aviv University.

Yaser Alghamdi

Ariel has been leading technology innovation and entrepreneurship for over 30 years, leading teams, founding companies and mentoring entrepreneurs. He is an active angel investor in startups, and supports technology education as a philanthropist. Ariel is a graduate of the prestigious Talpiot program, and holds a BSc from the Hebrew University ofJerusalem in Physics, Mathematics and Computer Science (Cum Laude) and an MBA from Tel Aviv University.

David Alliance, Lord of Manchester, is an angel investor. He served as the Non-Executive Chairman of Brown Group for over forty years.Lord. David Alliance, CBE (Lord Alliance of Manchester) served as the Non-Executive Chairman of N Brown Group plc from 1968 to September 1, 2012. Lord Alliance served as the Chairman of Coats Viyella Plc. Lord.Alliance has been a Non Executive Director of N Brown Group plc since 1968. He is a Director of a number of private companies and was appointed a life peer in 2004.Lord Alliance serves on a number of committees including the Prince’s Youth Business Trust, Council for Industry and Higher Education, and the University of Manchester Foundation, and the Wiseman Institute. He is senior trustee of the Next Century Foundation. He has a number of fellowships including Fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufacturers and Commerce; Fellow of the City and Guilds of London Institute; and Hon. Fellow of the Shenkar College of Textile Technology and Fashion. Lord Alliance holds a Doctorate of Science at Heriot-Watt University and Legum Doctor (Doctor of Laws Honoris Causa) from the University of Manchester. He is an Honorary Fellow of UMIST.

Yılmaz Yıldız

Rayya Al Zubaydi

Managerial experience with wealth of knowledge in technology. Brings a unique balance of education with two master’s degrees and 17 years experience.

Cem Topcuoglu

Sercan Isik - CEO & Co-Founder @ Scorp

Robert Kay

Salman Butt - Co-Founder & Chief Expansion Officer @ Salla

Aras Bulut İynemli is a Turkish actor.

Ron Zuckerman is the Co-Founder and Director of TV Time.

Ali Demir Akel

Ahu Serter is the Founder and President of Fark Labs. She previously worked at FARHYM Vehicle Interiors as a Head of Management Committee, Board Member. Ahu Serter attended Pace University.

İzzet Zakuto

Fadi Ali Ghandour is Founder & Chairman of Wamda Capital he is a serial entrepreneur mostly known for being the founder and CEO of Aramex, one of the leading global logistics and transportation companies listed on the Dubai Financial Market.

Usama is Chief Technology Officer at OODA Health. Before OODA, he was Founder and CEO of Open Insights, where he consulted clients on artificial intelligence, big data strategies and new business models. Usama was the first Global Chief Data Officer at Barclays in London, after he launched the largest tech startup accelerator in MENA as ExecutiveChairman of Oasis500 in Jordan.His background includes Chairman and CEO roles at several startups, including Blue Kangaroo Corp, DMX Group and digiMine (Audience Science). He was the first person to hold the Chief Data Officer title when Yahoo! acquired his second startup in 2004. He has held leadership roles at Microsoft and founded the machine learning systems group at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where his work on machine learning resulted in the top Excellence in Research award from Caltech, and a U.S. Government medal from NASA.Usama has published over 100 technical articles on data mining, data science, AI/ML, and databases. He holds over 30 patents and is a Fellow of both the AAAI and the ACM. Usama earned his PhD in Engineering in AI and Machine Learning from the University of Michigan. He holds two BSE’s in Engineering, a MSE Computer Engineering and a MSc in Mathematics.

Ebru Dorman

Mishaal Alireza - Board Member @ DokkanAfkar

Dany is a successful serial entrepreneur and investor, with many exits from ventures in a variety of industries. Dany co-founded and exited Bayt.com, the Middle East’s largest job site; Butlers, the UAE’s largest commercial laundry company and Intercat, one of the largest catering companies in the UAE. Dany was a seed investor in Gonabit, a MiddleEast focused daily deal website that was acquired by Living Social in 2011. He currently sits on the boards of 3 portfolio companies.Dany is the first to acknowledge that he wouldn’t have accomplished all these things without the support of the investors and mentors that gave him his start. It is this belief that serves as the impetus behind BECO. Like those that boosted him when he needed it, Dany aspires to serve the next wave of entrepreneurs, so that they too can fulfil their potential and pass along the same spirit of generosity to those that follow in their footsteps.

Yuval Tal has made quite a difference in the world of business online thanks to the creation of various e-commerce companies, many of which have successfully developed through his co-creation or his additional expertise. He has over 20 years of experience in technological startups, prepaid card applications, and security technology. CurrentWork Experience: Yuval Tal is the president of the NYC-based Payoneer, the private company he founded in 2005 an served as CEO during 2005-2010. Payoneer establishes viable solutions for payments in prepaid MasterCard® credit cards through the Internet via their prepaid Payoneer credit card. Instead of using typical banking services, Payoneer allows its members (including many online businesses) to sell products, but pay for their own supplies through an online service. Their technology system is secure, but assures privacy for its customers. The company is composed of over100 technology and finance expert employees. While based in NY, it also has research and development locations in Israel.Tal also provides consultation to Payments-r-us, a company started by four e-commerce experts who provide payment processing, merchandising and assorted payment solutions to their customers. The company helps their members find appropriate and free payments solutions.Past Work Experience: Before the creation of Payoneer, Tal was a co-founder for E4X Inc., technology and e-commerce payments provider worldwide. The company was established in 1999 but later changed its name to FiftyOne as it became a global market and e-commerce leader. The company allows its businesses to develop their online sales, marketing, delivery, stock, and transaction capabilities. Its current value is upwards of $500 million. Tal was the acting vice president as part of the business and development sector. FiftyOne is an innovative e-commerce solution because it's one of the pioneers of the e-commerce movement, allowing online retailers from the US to promote, market, and sell their merchandise using the monetary means of their native country. This is still significant today in terms of global money orders, payment processes and the international flow of goods from one point to the other. It's no wonder that market retailers like the Anthropologie clothing store, luxury and electronic gift store Brookstone, and Overstock.com have worked with the company. The company is based in New York, with its research and development operations unit in Israel.Tal also shined in leadership positions for companies such as R-U-Sure, where he was the chief executive officer, and vice president of business development at Radware, a publically traded company on NASDAQ.Summits and Conferences:Yuval Tal has participated in a plethora of affiliate, marketing, and digital-related conferences connected to his kind of work. At many of the conferences, he was featured as a speaker. The most recent conference was the impressive "Apps World," which was held in London in October 2012. The conference is noted to be the leading venue for those involved in the apps industry where they network and collaborate on international projects. He was a guest speaker at the conference and he explained the concept of Payoneer to the participants detailing how it fits into the newest e-wallet technologies. Through Payoneer, companies distribute branded cards that enable them to send direct payments into the recipient's account. He also shared his thoughts on the shape of the future mobile industry and responded to a series of general questions regarding the e-commerce industry.When he was invited to participate in a panel discussion at Israel's Afeka College, he had the opportunity to address many issues that were unclear to the attendees. Among others, the subjects ranged from discussions on the topic of Israel as a “hotbed” in the area of financial innovation, how web based financial start-ups differs from the more traditional start-ups on the web, as in social and media networks, and how the mobile will shape the future. He also dealt head-on with such questions as to the leaders in fintech space, the coming big trends that will take place in the financial tech space, how government and foreign regulations affect business and how to manage the pace of change without being snowed under. Since Tal works with clients at online affiliate networks as part of Payoneer, it's no surprise that the hi-tech head shared his knowledge and experience at both the 2009 and 2012 Affiliate Summit conferences. The Affiliate Summit established by Affiliate marketing experts is recognized as the most important event in affiliate marketing. The 2012 Affiliate Summit West Conference event was held last January in Las Vegas. The 2009 Affiliate Summit East Conference was held in New York. At that conference Tal spoke about his affiliate experience working with affiliate agents, heightening Payoneer's prowess in e-commerce, and establishing various payment methods through the company. Tal was a keynote speaker at two important e-commerce conferences in Israel. First, he spoke at the one-day Take Charge 2011 Digital Commerce Summit in September 2011, which offers innovative ecommerce concepts for digital companies, vendors and affiliates. He also spoke at the Track N' Pay Summit in Tel Aviv, which was hosted by Payoneer. This one-day conference is based on concepts in Internet and mobile affiliate tracking and payment services. For both conferences, Tal spoke on behalf of his veteran online, selling, affiliate marketing, and e-commerce work at Payoneer as related to the concepts of each conference. Personal Experience: Yuval Tal was born in August 1965 in Israel and still resides there in his home country in a suburb called Ramat HaSharon, located about 20 minutes from the country's central city Tel Aviv. It was in Tel Aviv where he received university education after serving in an elite unit in the Israeli Defense Forces. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering at Tel Aviv University in 1992. He went on to earn his Masters at Tel Aviv University where he studied biomedical engineering, minor in business administration.Tal has many hobbies outside the business and e-commerce realm. He likes photography and took five courses in it at the New School for General Studies and the Parsons School of Design, both in New York City. He has also been active in the Tel Aviv Nike Run, a 10 kilometer marathon throughout the city and has participated in a triathlon, which included running, biking, and swimming.

Bassam Falah is a Founder and Managing Partner of Innovest Middle East VC.

Karim Kawar is the president of Kawar Group, and the former ambassador to the United States and Mexico from Jordan. He is also chairman of Kawar Energy and of IrisGuard. As ambassador to the United States, Kawar led the EDAMA Initiative, Jordan's blueprint for a green economy and was appointed by Royal Decree to the Board of Trustees of theKing Abdullah II Fund for Development. Previously, Kawar was appointed to the Economic Consultative Council by His Majesty King Abdullah II. He is the architect of the REACH Initiative, Jordan's blueprint for a knowledge economy, founder and chairman of the Information Technology Association of Jordan, former president of the Jordan Computer Society, and a founding member of several business associations and NGOs, including AmCham and the Jordan Intellectual Property Association.

Amar Shubar is a partner at Management Partners Consulting.

Umur Özal is an angel investor.