Ozan Sonmez
Ozan is an angel investor, experienced startup mentor, and an accelerator manager with +10 years of global experience in investing and building startup programs. He has built programs that invested to more than 20 Startups #globalturks in Silicon Valley. His investments were later accepted to 500 Startups, Techstars, Consensys, Hax, and DU Ventures.
He is currently the Head of Growth for Global Innovation Catalyst, focusing on scaling experiential learning programs to foster the innovation economy. He is a certified trainer by Stanford University Center for Professional Development. He is the head of the EMEA Region for UC Berkeley’s Innovation Accelerator Group and he has contributed to the formation of the MIT Enterprise Forum’s Pre-Accelerator Bootcamp in MENA.
He is currently launching the Founder Institute Regional Pre-Seed Accelerator targeting Startups from Turkey, Lebanon, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, and Syria.
In 2019, he created the first Impact Focused Global Startup Accelerator for the UN Development Program in partnership with Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the World Food Program based out of Turkey. He has built multiple Intellectual/Science and Topic-based Startup Accelerators in the Middle East and Turkey. He has built a mentorship program for NY Based Building Markets that targets Refugee Built Small and Medium Businesses.