# Top 50 ESports Startup Investors in Middle East in October 2023

## Flashpoint
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: London, England, United Kingdom
- Relevant deals: 5
- Stages: Series A, Seed
- Focus: Software, SaaS, Enterprise Software

Flashpoint is an international technology investment firm that manages venture capital, secondary buy-out and venture debt funds.

## RTP Global
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: London, England, United Kingdom
- Relevant deals: 5
- Stages: Series A, Seed, Series B
- Focus: Software, Information Technology, E-Commerce

A global, early-stage venture capital firm, backing founders who use technology to reimagine how the world works like Datadog, DeliveryHero and Cred.

## 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.

## HIMAngel
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Cairo, Al Qahirah, Egypt
- Relevant deals: 3
- Stages: Seed, Pre-Seed, Convertible Note
- Focus: Food and Beverage, E-Commerce, Manufacturing

HIMAngel is a venture capital and private equity firm that supports early-stage startups to grow. It fills the funds' gap as there is an increasing focus on growth-stage VC funds, but little attention and even less money made available for early-stage investments.
HIMAngel was founded in 2017 and headquartered in Cairo, Al Qahirah.

## BITKRAFT Ventures
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: San Francisco, California, United States
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Seed, Series A
- Focus: Gaming, Video Games, Blockchain

We provide early- and mid-stage venture capital and expertise for extraordinary founders in gaming, esports, and interactive media.

## WPP
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: London, England, United Kingdom
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Corporate Round, Series B
- Focus: Advertising, Software, Marketing

WPP is the creative transformation company. We use the power of creativity to build better futures for our people, planet, clients and communities.

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

Sertaç Özinal

## ACT Venture Partners
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, The Netherlands
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Seed, Convertible Note, Series A
- Focus: Artificial Intelligence, Software, Manufacturing

Early stage deep tech investor

## Shaked Ventures
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Herzliya, Tel Aviv, Israel
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed, Pre-Seed, Series B
- Focus: Gaming, eSports, Internet

Shaked Ventures is a private investment fund by the founders of 888 Holdings Investing at seed stage B2B Enterprise Saas startups.

## Aurelia Ventures
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Santa Barbara, California, United States
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed, Pre-Seed
- Focus: Software, Information Technology, Artificial Intelligence

Equity-free programs for B2B SaaS founders - 1:1 Coaching with each founder team - Community of 200+ B2B founders - $1.25M+ Perks & Benefits.

## AUC Angels
- Type: VC Fund
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed, Pre-Seed, Angel
- Focus: E-Commerce, Software, Finance

What is AUC Angels?

AUC Angels is the first university-based angel investor network in the MENA region. Angel investors are individuals who are interested in investing in early-stage startups with growth potential which in turn supports the growth of a dynamic entrepreneurship ecosystem in Egypt.

## 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.

## Goal Ventures
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Los Angeles, California, United States
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Series A, Series B
- Focus: Gaming, eSports, Software

Goal Ventures is a venture capital firm.

## 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)

## Remagine Ventures
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv, Israel
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed, Series A, Pre-Seed
- Focus: Software, Artificial Intelligence, Gaming

Remagine Ventures is an early stage venture capital investing at the intersection of tech, entertainment, data and commerce.

## Eureeca
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Dubai, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed, Series A
- Focus: SaaS, eSports, Internet

Eureeca is the first and most regulated global online crowdinvesting (or Equity Crowdfunding) platform where businesses can source funding from the crowd in exchange for equity in their business. Harnessing the power of the internet and social media, Eureeca’s platform connects Angel and Institutional investors to small & medium enterprises(SMEs) online to pool their funds and resources - creating a game-changing alternative to traditional funding. We operate across 3 continents and over 100 countries. We have pioneered cross border investing; building a digital solution to enable investors to build a portfolio of early growth stage investments from around the globe.From our offices in Dubai, London, Kuala Lumpur, and Amsterdam, Eureeca offers high-yield potential investment opportunities from the Middle East, Europe, and Southeast Asia to its investor network who range from casual and angel investors to institutional firms. Businesses raising funds can leverage this network for capital, strategic connections, and expansion into new markets.Eureeca was recently highly ranked in the MENA Forbes “Top 100 Startups 2017” and won “Innovator of the Year” by Forbes in 2017. Other accolades include “Innovator of the Year” at the 2014 Gulf Business Awards and “Most Innovative Online Platform” by Frost and Sullivan in 2015.

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

Demirhan Büyüközcü - Co-Founder @ Onedio

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

Rıfat Elhadef

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

Kaan Kalıpçı

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

Kaan Kural

## Charlton LTD
- Type: VC Fund
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Pre-Seed
- Focus: Gaming, eSports, Artificial Intelligence

Charlton 

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

Emre Gerçek

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

Can Hicbezmez

## Geometry Venture Development | Angel Investment Fund
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Sariyer, Istanbul, Turkey
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed, Pre-Seed
- Focus: Software, SaaS, Blockchain

Rolling Fund + Syndicate Model with Modest Capital for Early Stage Startup Investors. Invests $20K - $50K in problem-solution stage technology startups.

## 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.

## StartupFon
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Istanbul, Istanbul, Turkey
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed, Angel, Pre-Seed
- Focus: Artificial Intelligence, E-Commerce, SaaS

StartupFon is the first and leading equity-based online investment platform based in Turkey and has been founded to capitalize technology-based ventures with qualified angel investors and its own venture capital fund, namely the AngelFund. Startupfon gives their members the opportunity to invest in seed / early-stage technology startups eitherthrough its venture capital AngelFund or co-invest with it independently. As a tool under Startupfon, AngelFund is a micro VC of around USD10 mn. Investors can make investments either on a deal by deal basis or they can allocate some of their budgets to AngelFund to let Startupfon invest on behalf of themselves. Startupfon has been founded by Istanbul Startup Angels (“ISA”) as its online investment platform in 2016. ISA is a leading angel investor platform accredited in 2014 discovering ambitious startups in their early-stage while mentoring them in the process. ISA also organizes angel investor academies for high net worth individuals and accelerator programs for corporates.
ISA performs with 4.3x TVPI on a total of TL 10 mn investments in 27 ventures as of March 2019.

## DLA Piper
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: London, England, United Kingdom
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed, Series A, Series B
- Focus: Artificial Intelligence, Information Technology, Software

DLA Piper is a global law firm with lawyers located in more than 40 countries throughout the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific to help clients with their legal needs around the world.

## Sony Innovation Fund
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Series B, Series A
- Focus: Software, Artificial Intelligence, Health Care

Sony Innovation Fund is investing in technology-driven transformational companies shaping the future of business, entertainment and society.

## 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.

## Alumni Ventures
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Manchester, New Hampshire, United States
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed, Series A, Series B
- Focus: Software, Information Technology, Health Care

Alumni Ventures offers diversified venture portfolios to accredited investors into highly competitive deals that individuals typically do not have access to on their own.

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

Hande Enes

## 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.

## twozero Ventures
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Istanbul, Istanbul, Turkey
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed, Series A, Pre-Seed
- Focus: Internet, Media and Entertainment, Software

twozero Ventures provides venture investing to technology-driven and disruptive startups in sports, media, and entertainment.

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

Selin Kiper

## Gaingels
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: New York, New York, United States
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed, Series A, Series B
- Focus: Software, Health Care, FinTech

Gaingels is a venture investment syndicate in service of the LGBT+ community and its allies, investing in companies with LGBT+ founders and C-suite leaders at all stages of growth, as well as in more established companies resolved on building more inclusive teams, with a global portfolio of 130+ companies and $70M in deployed investment capital todate. The Gaingels network also actively supports its portfolio in identifying and recruiting diverse talent to their C-suite and board leadership teams and fosters a vibrant global community of industry leaders, investors, operators, and entrepreneurs who share a common goal for positive social change through business and successful investments.

## Oqal
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Riyadh, Ar Riyad, Saudi Arabia
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed, Pre-Seed, Series A
- Focus: E-Commerce, Information Technology, Marketplace

A group of young entrepreneurs to connect young people with ideas.

## 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.

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

Erdem Gezer

## Digital Disrupt
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Moscow, Moscow City, Russian Federation
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed, Private Equity, Pre-Seed
- Focus: Software, Apps, Information Technology

Using our experience, networking and expertise, we help projects grow so that they change life around the world to the best.

## NaHCO3
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Los Angeles, California, United States
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed, Series A
- Focus: Gaming, Biotechnology, Education

Helping people rise to their potential.

## Axel Springer
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Berlin, Berlin, Germany
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Series A, Series B
- Focus: Software, Real Estate, Internet

Axel Springer is a media company engaged in publishing newspapers, magazines, and digital sales channels.Axel Springer founded the publishing house in Hamburg in 1946; the editors spent the first year working above a warehouse for tea and spices, often without electricity, and using borrowed typewriters. As a result of consistentinternationalization and digitization, Axel Springer SE today is not only market leader in the German print business, but is also active in more than 40 countries through subsidiaries, joint ventures and licenses. Now it is a question of pressing ahead with digitization even faster and more vigorously. For Axel Springer SE, informative and entertaining journalism is a viable business model also in future on the Internet, along with marketing and classifieds, the other two business segments in which the company is traditionally strong.In the tradition of its founder, who fostered journalistic and technological innovations in his time, Axel Springer SE is breaking new ground. The company is consistently pursuing the objective of building up a fast-growing and profitable digital portfolio and for this reason is networking today more than ever before with the current generation of founders: digital start-ups. Along with the transformation of their established strong media brands, their own new developments online and strategically-oriented acquisitions of web companies, this network is one of the building blocks of the company's international digitization strategy: Axel Springer SE wants to become the leading digital publisher.

## Gal Ventures
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Princeton, New Jersey, United States
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed, Pre-Seed, Series B
- Focus: AgTech, Recruiting, Information Technology

 Identify innovation, harness the energy of the founders and provide the commitment and support required for an epic ride

## Marker
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: New York, New York, United States
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Series B, Series C, Series A
- Focus: Software, Video, Enterprise Software

Marker LLC: Venture Capital. Intelligent investing. Enlightened model. New York, NY and Herzliya, Israel.

## Kaedan Capital
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv, Israel
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed, Series A, Series B
- Focus: Software, Mobile, SaaS

Kaedan Capital is a private investment group active for over 15 years. We are entrepreneur centric investors with co-founder mentality, focused on Israeli related, seed to early stage ventures in diverse technology areas.

## 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.

## The Chicago Cubs
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Chicago, Illinois, United States
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Series A, Series B
- Focus: eSports, Advertising, Video Games

The official website of the Chicago Cubs with the most up-to-date information on scores, schedule, stats, tickets, and team news.

## 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.

## HBSE Ventures
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: New York, New York, United States
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Series A, Seed, Series B
- Focus: Media and Entertainment, Sports, Broadcasting

HBSE Ventures is a venture capital fund focused on sports-tech.

## La French Tech
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Paris, Ile-de-France, France
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed, Pre-Seed
- Focus: Biotechnology, Software, iOS

La French Tech is a global initiative that supports and promotes French communities of startups and entrepreneurs around the world. It assists all the professionals working towards startups’ growth and international promotion, including entrepreneurs, investors, engineers, designer, developers, corporate companies, R&D centers, governmentagencies, incubators, co-working spaces, and more.La French Tech was founded in 2013 and is based in Paris, Ile-de-France.

## 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.

# About Shizune
Shizune.co is an investor database. Core features:
- 48,091 startup investors (angels, VCs, accelerators, and others)
- Email, phone, LinkedIn (for intros), socials, and other contact data
- Updated daily from public funding news
- CSV and Excel export

The User can access the full database FOR FREE after signing up: shizune.co