ACT Venture Partners

Deep-tech investor who previously managed IP-based deep-tech investments at Inventram, the tech commercialization and CVC arm of Koc Holding. He began his career as an engineer in California at firms including Lucent, Xilinx, and Cadence, was a founding member of startup SanBar Networks, and later worked in M&A in Istanbul. He holds an MBA from London Business School and engineering degrees from UC Santa Barbara and Bilkent University.

An entrepreneur who ran EEMEA operations for UK advisory firm Pera and coordinated EU programmes at TUBITAK, raising EUR 200mn in R&D funds. He chaired the EUREKA Network in Brussels and holds M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Science and Technology Policy plus an MBA from the University of Illinois. He is a Chevening Scholar alumnus.

A technologist with over 18 years in technology and innovation, formerly at Turkey's engineering-design company Hexagon Studio leading R&D projects in automotive, defence, and manufacturing. He spent 12 years at TUBITAK supporting researchers and startups and conducted over 300 technology evaluations. He is a mechanical engineer with graduate studies in science and technology policy at METU.

Erhan Ercan is Head of Global Business Development at Morphotonics B.V., a Dutch nanoimprint technology company with origins at Philips. He brings over 20 years of experience in consumer electronics, displays, and semiconductors, and has previously served as co-founder and VP of Marketing at Ostendo Technologies, where he contributed to raising over $200M and expanding the company to 150 employees across AR/VR, automotive, and display product lines.

Evren Ucok holds a PhD in GSD and currently deploys capital as an equity investor across public and private markets, serving as anchor investor for approximately 50 fund families spanning flagship funds, venture vehicles, specialist strategies, and emerging market-focused funds, with particular focus on the PE and VC ecosystem in Turkey. Previously, he cofounded Trendyol, the largest ecommerce business in EMEA, and Peak Games, Turkey's first unicorn exit, as well as Digital East Fund, an emerging market venture fund that achieved approximately 13x DPI returns. Before his entrepreneurial ventures, Ucok spent approximately 14 years at Oliver Wyman as a strategy consultant.

Matthew Scherba is the founder of RebelTech Ventures, a deeptech-focused venture capital firm. He brings extensive executive management experience across the technology sector, including founding, scaling, and investing in companies in IoT, deeptech, and AI, as well as serving in executive and non-executive roles. His background spans commercial strategy, product development, sales leadership, and market expansion across Europe and the US in sectors including professional services, financial services, government, defense, and healthcare.

Mustafa Ay is an Executive in Residence at ACT Venture Partners who brings experience from TUBITAK in evaluating, funding, and commercializing large-scale deep-tech projects across energy, health, transportation, defense, security, environment, agriculture, and information technologies. He has developed an ecosystem network spanning startups, SMEs, industrial companies, universities, research centers, and public institutions. Ay currently advises early-stage companies and spin-offs on technology development, team building, funding strategies, commercialization, and international expansion.

Onur L. Cetin is co-founder of AI Growth Bureau, where he provides fractional sales and consulting services to artificial intelligence startups. He previously worked as a quantitative analyst at UBS and BGI, and held sales roles at Bloomberg and IHS Markit. His background spans academic research in control systems and machine learning, along with experience across eleven early-stage and scaling companies in AI, fintech, climate risk, and quantum computing sectors.

Yaman Tunaoğlu co-founded KAREL, a Turkish telecommunications and technology platform company, in 1986, and served for 36 years as Head of R&D and Chief Technology Officer, overseeing the design of the company's telecommunications products. Over his career he developed and managed KAREL's Electronic Manufacturing Services operations (1993–2005), led the international sales team (2005–2009), and established its Defense Industry Solutions division. After Doğan Holding acquired control shares in KAREL in 2022, he was appointed CEO and Vice Chairman of the Board; he also chairs TESİD and holds a B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from Boğaziçi University and an M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from Michigan Technological University.

Soydan Ersoy is an Executive in Residence at ACT Venture Partners with more than 20 years of experience across information technology, service, advertising, and food & beverage sectors. He has served on board and execution committees for over 7 years and brings expertise in new business development, operations management, digital marketing, go-to-market strategies, and international sales.

Troy Dale is a pharmaceutical executive who has held CEO and board positions while serving as an angel investor with Springboard Health Angels. He has experience leading teams across organizational scales and executing strategy from conception through implementation. His background includes work in strategic planning and problem-solving across complex business environments.