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

## Kushal Shah
- Type: Angel
- Relevant deals: 3
- Stages: Seed, Series B
- Focus: eSports, Video, Gaming

Kushal Shah is a Senior Partner at Roland Berger's Dubai office and a Managing Partner for the Middle East. Prior to joining Roland Berger, he spent 12 years with a leading consultancy in London and Dubai. He studied Economics at Cambridge in the UK and he is a certified Chartered Accountant.

## Sertaç Özinal
- Type: Angel
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Seed, Angel
- Focus: Internet, FinTech, Payments

Sertaç Özinal

## Cem Büyükkaya
- Type: Angel
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Pre-Seed
- Focus: Gaming, eSports, Fantasy Sports

Cem Büyükkaya

## Fethi Ahmet Özbulut
- Type: Angel
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Pre-Seed
- Focus: Gaming, eSports, Fantasy Sports

Fethi Ahmet Özbulut

## Gizem Nilay Tuna
- Type: Angel
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Pre-Seed
- Focus: Gaming, eSports, Fantasy Sports

Gizem Nilay Tuna

## İrfan Ündevli
- Type: Angel
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Pre-Seed
- Focus: Gaming, eSports, Fantasy Sports

İrfan Ündevli

## Kaan Karapınar
- Type: Angel
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Pre-Seed
- Focus: Gaming, eSports, Fantasy Sports

Kaan Karapınar

## Barış Before
- Type: Angel
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Angel
- Focus: eSports, Video Games, Social Media

Barış Before

## Kaan Kalıpçı
- Type: Angel
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Angel
- Focus: eSports, Video Games, Social Media

Kaan Kalıpçı

## Andrey Belozerov
- Type: Angel
- Location: Moscow, Moscow City, Russian Federation
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed
- Focus: Apps, EdTech, FinTech

Andrey Belozerov (born 17 November 1980) is a Russian manager, entrepreneur and investor with a portfolio including SpaceX, Momentus, Pitchme and others. Expert in the field of digital technologies and digital transformation, co-founder Digital Disrupt investment club, United Nations Development Program expert.

## Emre Gerçek
- Type: Angel
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Pre-Seed
- Focus: Gaming, eSports, Fantasy Sports

Emre Gerçek

## Orkun Saitoğlu
- Type: Angel
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Series A
- Focus: Soccer, Sports, eSports

Born in Istanbul in 1982, Orkun Saitoğlu graduated from Galatasaray High School and then studied Computer Engineering at Montpellier University and completed his master's degree at Paris Pierre-Marie Curie University in Paris. In the second year of his graduate study, he became part of the team of B2B, B2C sites in the TUI group and startedhis career as a Software Engineer. During the first years of his career, he supported the design and integration of PayPal solution in France and the Benelux and later on became a part of business development and sales team during Scandinavian, Turkish, Middle Eastern and Russian market expansion. Orkun, later on became a part of a global team managing PayPal’s relationship with startups against Stripe and Braintree competition. In 2014, after living abroad for 14 years he decided to move back to Turkey to establish his own startup company. It is during this period that Orkun met with iyzico’s co-founders Barbaros Özbuğutu and Tahsin Isın to become the COO of iyzico knowing that the company would emerge as the payment champion of the region. Orkun is currently in charge of all of iyzico’s sales, marketing and operations teams.

## Mustafa Emre Gündüz
- Type: Angel
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Pre-Seed
- Focus: Gaming, eSports, Fantasy Sports

Mustafa Emre Gündüz

## Sercan Akkaş
- Type: Angel
- Location: Istanbul, Istanbul, Turkey
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed, Pre-Seed
- Focus: Apps, Fruit, Gaming

Sercan Akkas serves as Product Director at Yemeksepeti.

## Ercan Ergül
- Type: Angel
- Location: Istanbul, Istanbul, Turkey
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Series A
- Focus: Soccer, Sports, eSports

Ercan Ergül is a Managing Director with SEAF, the manager of Southeast Europe Equity Fund II, L.P. (“SEEF”), a US$320 million private equity fund with investments in Turkey, Albania and Kosovo. Ercan is also a board member of Global Investment Holding, a listed investment group based in İstanbul with operations in ports, energy and financialservices. Prior to joining SEAF, he spent his career as a private equity and investment banking professional and began his career in the corporate credit group of Citibank in Turkey. Ercan received his undergraduate degree from Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey, and a Masters of Business Administration with concentration in Finance from the University of Florida.

## Dylan Collins
- Type: Angel
- Location: London, England, United Kingdom
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Series A
- Focus: eSports, Advertising, Video Games

Dylan Collins is one of Europe’s most experienced digital media entrepreneurs, focusing on games, kids entertainment and the technology which underpins them.He is CEO of SuperAwesome, the #1 kid-safe brand engagement platform. SuperAwesome works with the biggest kids entertainment brands in the world including Disney, Hasbro, Warner Bros andActivision ensuring they connect safely with over a quarter of a billion kids each month.An active investor and advisor across both kids media and technology companies, he is Venture Partner with Hoxton Ventures and sits on the board of the UK’s top-rated marketing technology agency, Potato and Brown Bag Films, Europe’s leading kids animation studio. Previously Collins founded Jolt Online Gaming which became one of the pioneering social games publishers in Europe. Jolt was acquired by GameStop (NYSE: GME), the largest video games retailer in the world in 2009 to spearhead their digital media strategy.As founder and CEO of DemonWare in 2003, he led the company to become the leading online games technology firm in the global console games market. In 2007, DemonWare was acquired by Activision Blizzard (NYSE: ATVI), the world’s biggest video games publisher and is now the multiplayer backbone of the billion-dollar Call of Duty franchise.

## Selin Kiper
- Type: Angel
- Location: Istanbul, Istanbul, Turkey
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Series A
- Focus: Soccer, Sports, eSports

Selin Kiper

## Barbaros Özbugutu
- Type: Angel
- Location: Istanbul, Istanbul, Turkey
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed, Pre-Seed, Series A
- Focus: Retail, Soccer, Sports

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)

## Khalid AlTawil
- Type: Angel
- Location: Riyadh, Ar Riyad, Saudi Arabia
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed
- Focus: Gaming, eSports, Rental

Khalid AlTawil is a Board Member at Saudi Chemcial Company.

## Brad Kotansky
- Type: Angel
- Location: Paradise Valley, Arizona, United States
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Series A, Seed, Series B
- Focus: E-Commerce, Internet, News

Brad Kotansky has always been a serial investor: while pursuing his undergraduate BComm degree at McGill University, Brad was a member of the finance club and interned at ScotiaMcLeod for a wealth advisor; upon graduation, his passion for investing led him to Wall Street where he spent over a decade working as an investment banker, and later as ananalyst and portfolio manager for various hedge funds; in 2012, he founded Prickly Pear Ventures, a real estate development firm in Phoenix, Arizona, to capture opportunities from fallout of the Real Estate crisis of 2009 (the portfolio of single-family homes he amassed was ultimately sold to ARPI, a publicly traded REIT in 2013). To this day, Brad continues to be very active in the angel and seed investing world having invested in companies such as Coupang, Synchtank, Playsight, New Hive and Jingle Punks. But one thing Brad had always wanted to do was start and operate a business of his own. Ari’s business plan was tweaked, and together the pair embarked on a search for a technical founder.

## 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.

## Erdem Gezer
- Type: Angel
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed, Angel
- Focus: eSports, Video Games, Social Media

Erdem Gezer

## Kaan Kayabalı
- Type: Angel
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed, Angel
- Focus: eSports, Video Games, Social Media

Kaan Kayabali, a Turkish entrepreneur, is the founder and CEO of Onedio Media and Internet Services Inc.

## Sina Afra
- Type: Angel
- Location: Istanbul, Istanbul, Turkey
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed, Series A, Angel
- Focus: E-Commerce, Software, Internet

Sina is a Serial Entrepreneur. His latest endeavor is Tiko which he founded and serves as CEO. Before that he was the Founder of Markafoni, the first Online Fashion site of Turkey. Markafoni became also the first Turkish internet company expanding beyond the borders of Turkey: Markafoni launched sites in Australia, Ukraine, Greece and Polandbetween 2009 and 2011. Sina served until 2014 as Chairman and CEO. The Naspers Group acquired in July 2011 a majority stake at Markafoni and signed for one of the biggest deals in the Turkish internet. Sina is also an active Business Angel and invests in early stage start-ups. He is the President of the Entrepreneur Foundation and Endeavor Turkey Board (2013-2017).Sina has been elected as the “Internet Entrepreneur of the Year” and “Business Angel of the Year” in Turkey. Markafoni won several awards: “Best Web Start-up 2011” and “Best Online Fashion Site in 2011, 2012 and 2013”. The Wired UK magazin elected in 2012 and 2013 Markafoni to the hottest 100 companies in Europe. Sina was also selected (2014 & 2015) to the Top 100 most influential tech people Europe. In 2016 he was selected as one of Top 100 most influential tech people in the World (Wired Magazine). Forbes Magazin elected him to the "Brightest Minds" alive in Turkey (2019).Prior to Markafoni, Sina spent more than 5 years with eBay and 12 years with KPMG. Sina received a "Diplom Kaufmann" from Münster University and joined later Harvard Business School. He speaks five languages. His passion goes with his family and esports where he is the President of "1907 Fenerbahçe esports” team - a professional esports team in the TCL. He shares his thoughts on eCommerce in his personal blog www.sinaafra.com and on twitter (sinaafra).

## Hande Enes
- Type: Angel
- Location: Istanbul, Istanbul, Turkey
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Angel, Seed, Pre-Seed
- Focus: Software, Artificial Intelligence, Social Media

Hande Enes

## Rıfat Elhadef
- Type: Angel
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Angel
- Focus: eSports, Video Games, Social Media

Rıfat Elhadef

## Kaan Kural
- Type: Angel
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Angel
- Focus: eSports, Video Games, Social Media

Kaan Kural

## Marc Merrill
- Type: Angel
- Location: Los Angeles, California, United States
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed, Series A
- Focus: Media and Entertainment, Gaming, Video Games

Marc Merrill Co-founded of Riot Games, Inc. in 2006 and serves as its President. Marc Merrill served as Chief Marketing Officer of Riot Games, Inc. He was corporate marketing executive in the exciting world of Business-to-Business media at Advanstar Communications. He has marketing, leadership, and elite gaming skills including Schedule Mastery +9.He held roles in finance with Merrill Lynch and US Bancorp.

## Demirhan Büyüközcü
- Type: Angel
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed, Angel
- Focus: eSports, Video Games, Social Media

Demirhan Büyüközcü - Co-Founder @ Onedio

## Can Hicbezmez
- Type: Angel
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Pre-Seed
- Focus: Gaming, eSports, Fantasy Sports

Can Hicbezmez

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