Bio

Alper Celen is the founder of ENHANCE VENTURES, a venture studio for the future of commerce and finance in the Middle East , North Africa, Pakistan, and Turkey. Enhance’s portfolio includes JOI GIFTS, CLEVR, BLUE TERRA, RIGHT FARM, BNS among others. Previous to Enhance, Alper was the founder of FOODONCLICK.com in Saudi Arabia (acquired by DELIVERYHERO in 2015). Alper is an active high-tech startup investor and advisor. His portfolio includes VOICELOFT, MUBI, ZENSION, and TAGVANCE. Alper is an active promoter of the venture studio model and moderates the Venture Studio Bootcamp for the GLOBAL STARTUP STUDIO NETWORK (GSSN). He sits on the advisory boards of GSSN and HASHED HEALTH VENTURE STUDIO. He is also member of DUBAI INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL CENTRE’s Innovation Panel. Before becoming an entrepreneur, Alper was a management consultant in his own boutique consultancy Commit and as part of McKinsey & Company's Scandinavian Office leadership team. Previously, Alper has had leadership roles at Nokia, Ansys, IBM, and NASA subcontractor Millitech. Two satellites he helped design are still in Earth orbit. Alper has an MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management and BS and ME in Electrical Engineering from the University of Virginia. Alper is a Henry DuPont III Scholar and Siebel Scholar and is a recipient of the Alfred P. Sloan Achievement Award from MIT. He is an active volunteer for TechStars and MIT. Alper loves motorsports, long-distance running, and traveling to soon reach his goal of 100 countries. He lives in Dubai with his wife and two sons.