Alper Celen

Alper Celen is a Partner at Leyden Studio Fund and the founder of ENHANCE VENTURES, a venture studio specializing in online vertical marketplaces in the Middle East , North Africa, Pakistan, and Turkey (MENAPT). Enhance’s portfolio includes JOI GIFTS, CLEVR, BLUE TERRA among others. Previous to Enhance, Alper was the founder of FOODONCLICK.com in Saudi Arabia (acquired by DELIVERYHERO in 2015).

Alper serves on the advisory boards of:

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 where he focused in telecom strategy and organization practices. Alper has advised multiple governments on their innovation and startup ecosystem strategies as well as higher education. 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 with high distinction from Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management and Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Virginia where he studied as a National Science Foundation scholar. 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 mentor for TechStars and Startupbootcamp and judges for the MIT Enterprise Forum Pan Arab Business Plan Competition and continues to volunteer for MIT as an Educational Counsellor. He is a frequent speaker on topics of innovation, startup studios, startup ecosystem requirements, and consumer behavior. Alper loves motorsports, long-distance running, and traveling to soon reach his goal of 100 countries from his home base in Dubai where he lives with his wife and two sons.