# Top 30 Automotive Angel Investors in Middle East in October 2023

## Zohar Zisapel
- Type: Angel
- Location: Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv, Israel
- Relevant deals: 3
- Stages: Series A, Seed, Series B
- Focus: Cyber Security, Information Technology, Security

Zohar Zisapel

## Uri Levine
- Type: Angel
- Relevant deals: 3
- Stages: Series A, Seed, Pre-Seed
- Focus: Apps, Mobile, Travel

Uri Levine - Co-Founder & Chairman @ Refundit

## Eyal Ofer
- Type: Angel
- Relevant deals: 3
- Stages: Series B, Series A, Series C
- Focus: Financial Services, SaaS, Artificial Intelligence

Eyal Ofer (born 1950) is Chairman of Ofer Global, leading the group’s private portfolio of international businesses in shipping, real estate, energy, technology, banking and investments. In 2017, Eyal launched O.G. Venture Partners, a single LP Venture Capital fund focused on investing in early-growth-stage technology start-ups, demonstrating hislong-standing support for tech entrepreneurs.In 2022, O.G. Venture Partners announced Fund II of $400M following the successful $100m Fund I, later expanded to $150m. Fund I has invested in 21 companies since its 2017 launch, with 5 exits already. The Fund I portfolio includes: LendBuzz, WSC Sports, BlueVine, Bringg, Paxos, Connecteam, Elementor, Coralogix, Candivore and SuperPlay.
Eyal Ofer (born 1950) is Chairman of Ofer Global, leading the group’s private portfolio of international businesses in shipping, real estate, energy, technology, banking and investments. In 2017, Eyal launched O.G. Venture Partners, a single LP Venture Capital fund focused on investing in early-growth-stage technology start-ups, demonstrating his long-standing support for tech entrepreneurs.
In 2022, O.G. Venture Partners announced Fund II of $400M following the successful $100m Fund I, later expanded to $150m. Fund I has invested in 21 companies since its 2017 launch, with 5 exits already. The Fund I portfolio includes: LendBuzz, WSC Sports, BlueVine, Bringg, Paxos, Connecteam, Elementor, Coralogix, Candivore and SuperPlay.

## Bedii Can Yucaoglu
- Type: Angel
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Seed, Series A
- Focus: Marketplace, Mobile, Big Data

Bedii Can Yucaoglu - Advisor @ Hesapkurdu

## Emre Acikel
- Type: Angel
- Location: Geneva, Geneve, Switzerland
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Pre-Seed, Seed
- Focus: Marketplace, E-Commerce, Mobile

Emre Acikel

## Erdem Yurdanur
- Type: Angel
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed, Pre-Seed, Angel
- Focus: Mobile, Advertising, Marketplace

Erdem Yurdanur - Founder & Director @ Admost

## Peter Mertens
- Type: Angel
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed, Pre-Seed, Angel
- Focus: Software, Automotive, Information Technology

Peter Mertens

## Anonymous
- Type: Angel
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed, Pre-Seed, Series B
- Focus: Manufacturing, Software, Information Technology

Anonymous  

## Ali Cebi
- Type: Angel
- Location: Istanbul, Istanbul, Turkey
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed, Pre-Seed
- Focus: Transportation, Mobile, Internet

Ali Çebi

## Ynon Kreiz
- Type: Angel
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Series C, Series A
- Focus: Music, Video, Security

Ynon Kreiz joined Maker’s board as Chairman in May 2012 and was appointed Executive Chairman/CEO in May 2013. Under Ynon’s leadership, in May 2014 Maker merged with The Walt Disney Company.Before joining Maker, Ynon was Chairman and CEO of Endemol Group, the world's largest independent television production company, with majorinternational programming franchises including Big Brother and Deal or No Deal. Under his management, Endemol produced more than 10,000 hours of programming per year for over 300 broadcasters worldwide and became one of the world’s largest independent distributors of English speaking programming. During his tenure, Endemol also established its position as the leading independent producer for both network and cable in the U.S. and diversified into scripted programming. Prior to Endemol, Ynon was a General Partner at Balderton Capital (formerly Benchmark Capital Europe). Prior to that, Ynon co-founded Fox Kids Europe N.V. where he was Chairman and CEO. Under his leadership, Fox Kids Europe became one of the fastest growing pay-TV channels in Europe and the Middle East, broadcasting in 56 countries in 17 languages. Fox Kids Europe was listed on the Euronext Stock Exchange in Amsterdam in 1999 and the majority shareholding was sold to the Walt Disney Company in 2001. Ynon is a graduate of the Tel Aviv University and holds a B.A. in Economics and Management as well an M.B.A. from UCLA's Anderson School of Management.

## Gonzalo Martinez de Azagra
- Type: Angel
- Location: Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv, Israel
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed, Series A, Pre-Seed
- Focus: Software, Artificial Intelligence, Video

Investor/global strategist with a deep business/financial training and the ability to understand technology at the engineering level.Related investments:* Replay Technologies* Celeno* AudioBurst* Corephotonics* Rounds* ScyllaDB* EarlySense* Cortica* Aveni* Pitango VI, VII, VC fund (Israel) * Triventures III*StoreDot (Israel) '12 * NextIO: Datacenter IO Virtualization company (US), '12* Undisclosed Flash based storage company (US) '12* Yume, Digital Ad Network, (US,Operational DD) '11Specialties: Areas of investment focus: 1) Mobile: Comp. Vision, Imaging, Wireless Comms 2) Cloud : IAAS, PAAS, Ent. Storage, Servers, Virtualization, Big data processing/management3) Semicon: Equipment/Process Technology/MetrologyOther: Media, Digital Advertising, Online Gaming/GamblingGeographic Coverage:1) Israel2) Europe3) USSManaged Portfolio:Replay TechnologiesGirafficStoreDot (Board Member)Pitango VI LP representativePurestorage (past)FusionIO (past)PrimeSense (Past)EXPERIENCEPrincipalSamsung VenturesDecember 2011 – Present (1 year 3 months)San Francisco Bay AreaDeal sourcing, due diligence, term sheet negotiation and execution, portfolio management and exitManager - Global StrategistSamsung ElectronicsAugust 2010 – December 2011 (1 year 5 months)Founded in 1997 by Group Chairman Kun-Hee Lee the Global Strategy group is an internal strategy consulting team created to help Samsung face its globalization challenges.Project Lead and UC Berkeley School Recruiting Champion:http://gsg.samsung.com/popup/popup_Berkeley.asp(Open)1 honor or awardSenior ConsultantPwC ConsultingJuly 2005 – August 2008 (3 years 2 months)Promoted from Analyst to Senior Consultant within 7 months. Strategic plans, process re-engineering, proforma modeling and investment appraisal for multiple industries.Systems Design EngineerAEA Technology (Former Atomic Energy Authority)July 2003 – July 2005 (2 years 1 month)London, United KingdomEMI studies (C++, Matlab). High Voltage Power Supply desig. Relevant projects: West Coast Route Modernization, CTRL, etc.

## Lars Fjeldsoe-Nielsen
- Type: Angel
- Location: London, England, United Kingdom
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed, Series A, Series B
- Focus: Software, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning

Lars Fjeldsoe-Nielsen is a Co-Founder & serves as a Partner at 2xN. Lars Fjeldsoe-Nielsen was General Partner at Balderton Capital in London from 2015-2021 through four funds. He joined after spending a decade in Silicon Valley where he was with Uber and Dropbox.Since 2012 his venture track record includes two IPOs (Uber, Dropbox) and 11acquisitions.Lars joined Balderton from Uber which he joined when the company was operating in less than 20 cities. His role as Vice-President resulted in strategic alliances. Lars joined Uber from Dropbox as one of the company’s first 25 employees. As Head of Mobile, his growth deals with Samsung and other mobile OEMs helped Dropbox reach its first 100 million users. Prior to that Lars held positions at Voicesignal (acq. Nuance), Skyhook Wireless (acq. TruePosition), Ness Technologies (acq. Opentable), 3Jam (acq. Skype) and T9 Tegic (acq. AOL). More than a billion people have used the software and services distributed as a result of mobile growth partnerships led by Lars.His venture investments include Voi (Raine), Labster (A16Z), Hiya (Ericsson), Cambridge Quantum Computing (HON), Hopin (A16Z), Opensea (A16Z), Yassir (YC), Beacon (Eric Schmidt), The org (Sequoia), Octant (A16Z), Zycada (Khosla), Monarch Money (Accel) and Kukua (Tencent), Dubsmash (acq. Reddit), Tempow (acq. Google), Rahko (acq. Odyssey Therapeutics), Pocket (acq. Mozilla), Blue Bottle (acq. Nestle), Marble (acq. Caterpillar).Lars, who is Danish-Portuguese, grew up across Africa and served with the Royal Danish Guards. He holds a MBA from London Business School, where he also serves on the Board of Trustees, an MSc from Oxford University Keble College and a BSc from King’s College, London. He lives in London with his wife and three children.

## Wassim Matar
- Type: Angel
- Location: London, England, United Kingdom
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed
- Focus: FinTech, InsurTech, Insurance

Wassim Matar is a Managing Partner at Verve Ventures VC.

## Firat Isbecer
- Type: Angel
- Location: Istanbul, Istanbul, Turkey
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed, Angel, Pre-Seed
- Focus: Internet, Software, SaaS

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.

## Yigal Jacoby
- Type: Angel
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed
- Focus: Beauty, Mobile, Analytics

Yigal Yacoby is an angel investor.Yigal Jacoby co-founded Allot Communications in 1996 and served as both the Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors until 2006, when he retired as CEO.Jacoby continued as Chariman of the Board until November 2008.In 1992, Jacoby founded Armon Networking, a manufacturer ofRMON-based network management solutions, which was sold to Bay Networks in 1996. Following this acquisition, Jacoby continued on as General Manager of Bay Network’s Network Management Division from 1996-1997.Prior to this, he held a variety of engineering and marketing management positions at Tekelec, a manufacturer of telecommunication monitoring and diagnostic equipment. Throughout his career, Jacoby has founded several start-ups in the communications field, serving on their board of directors and taking an active role in guiding the companies.Jacoby has a B.A. cum laude in Computer Science from the Technion, Israel’s Institute of Technology and an M.Sc. in Computer Science from University of Southern California.

## Igor Ryabenkiy
- Type: Angel
- Location: San Francisco, California, United States
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed, Series A
- Focus: Software, Information Technology, SaaS

Igor Ryabenkiy is the Managing Partner at AltaIR Capital.
Igor is a serial entrepreneur and angel investor with over twenty years of successful executive and investment experience including Internet startups and IT companies. He has funded, developed, and exited a significant number of investment projects worldwide.

## Marius Nacht
- Type: Angel
- Location: Tel Aviv-yafo, Tel Aviv, Israel
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Series A, Seed, Series B
- Focus: Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Health Care

Marius Nacht, one of Check Point’s founders, has served as Chairman of our board of directors since 2015. Nacht has also served as one of our directors since we were incorporated in 1993. From 1999 through 2005, Nacht held Senior Vice President roles at Check Point.
Nacht earned a B.S. (cum laude) in Physics and Mathematics from the HebrewUniversity of Jerusalem in 1983, and an M.S. in Electrical Engineering and Communication Systems from Tel Aviv University in 1987.

## Melih Odemis
- Type: Angel
- Location: London, England, United Kingdom
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed, Pre-Seed, Angel
- Focus: Software, E-Commerce, Mobile

Melih is one of the pioneer Internet entrepreneurs in Turkey. Born in Istanbul, he studied Computer Engineering and MBA at Bogazici University. After one year of professional experience in Citibank, Melih founded yemeksepeti.com with his partners in 2000. Yemeksepeti.com became the online food delivery giant first in Turkey, and then in Middle Eastand Eastern Europe. As a co-founder, Melih has acted as CTO of the company until 2013 and as Board Member until May 2015, when the company was acquired by Delivery Hero writing one of the biggest Internet exit stories in the region.
Melih has been selected an Endeavor Entrepreneur in 2007. Since 2011 he has been an active angel investor in internet and technology companies with more than 30 investments. He is one of the cofounders of Galata Business Angels, which is one of the first business angel networks in Turkey. He is a founding member of EO Turkey.
Melih lives in London now with his family and continues to invest in tech start-ups globally.

## Michael van Swaaij
- Type: Angel
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed, Angel, Series A
- Focus: SaaS, Travel, Software

Michael van Swaaij is an Advisor, and ex-Chairman Skype and attributed with the launch of eBay & AOL in Europe

## Christer Andersson
- Type: Angel
- Location: Stockholm, Stockholms Lan, Sweden
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed, Series A, Series B
- Focus: Software, Internet, Music

Christer K. Andersson is an investor in early stage angel and venture rounds. Christer's main focus is in software tech start-ups that have a certain level of disruption in their idea. The current portfolio includes start-ups based in USA, Sweden, India , Israel, and Germany and cover technologies in Crypto / BlockChain, ArtificialIntelligence, BioTech, Enterprise SaaS, MusicTech, Mobility, and Futureofwork.

## Kaan Karamanci
- Type: Angel
- Location: London, England, United Kingdom
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed, Angel, Series B
- Focus: Mobile, Marketing, Automotive

Kaan Karamanci is Co-founder at Gram Games.

## Rami Lipman
- Type: Angel
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed, Series A
- Focus: SaaS, Software, Machine Learning

Rami Lipman is an angel investor.

## Ahu Serter
- Type: Angel
- Location: Istanbul, Istanbul, Turkey
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed, Angel, Pre-Seed
- Focus: Software, Baby, Information Services

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.

## Nevzat Aydın
- Type: Angel
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed, Angel, Pre-Seed
- Focus: Internet, E-Commerce, Software

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.

## Can Yucaoglu
- Type: Angel
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed
- Focus: Mobile, Big Data, Automotive

Can Yucaoglu

## Deniz Devrim Cengiz
- Type: Angel
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed, Series A
- Focus: Blockchain, FinTech, Apps

Deniz Devrim Cengiz

## Melih Murat Yucaoglu
- Type: Angel
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed
- Focus: Mobile, Big Data, Automotive

Melih Murat Yucaoglu

## Fernando Rivera
- Type: Angel
- Location: Quito, Pichincha, Ecuador
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed, Angel
- Focus: Apps, Recruiting, Vending and Concessions

Entrepreneur, Angel Investor and VC. Ex-CTO for ETF.com. Interest in LatAm startups and Fintech.

## Omer Erkmen
- Type: Angel
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed, Angel, Pre-Seed
- Focus: Software, E-Commerce, Analytics

Omer Erkmen is the co-founder at Yeni Nesil Kafası. Omer Erkmen attended UC Santa Barbara.

## Serkan Borancılı
- Type: Angel
- Location: Istanbul, Istanbul, Turkey
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Series A, Angel, Series B
- Focus: E-Commerce, Internet, Shoes

Serkan Borançılı is the founding partner of GittiGidiyor, Turkey's leading consumer-to-consumer marketplace, which was acquired by eBay in 2011 for $220 million dollars.
Born in 1971 in Ankara, Borançılı graduated from Istanbul Technical University with a degree in Architecture. After working as a freelance architect, he founded ARKInformation Technologies with Burak Divanlıoğlu in 1999. Up to 2004 GittiGidiyor was administered by ARK.
Borançılı is also the co-founder of UzmanTV, a video website specializing in curated content by experts, and Istanbul.net, Turkey's largest online dating platform.
Borançılı is also the first investor in BiTaksi, Turkey's leading taxi-hailing app. Since, he has also invested in Modacruz, a marketplace for secondhand luxury fashion.

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