Social Entrepreneur, Investor, Speaker, Trainer

on a mission to prove profits and impact are not mutually exclusive
Istanbul, Frankfurt, New York

Co-founder of Arya Women Investment Platform
Board Member of Carnegie Mellon Alumni in Turkey
Vital Voices Global Ambassador Mentee #GAP20
LP at Rising Tide Europe

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About me

Deniz is the co-founder of Arya Women Investment Platform. Arya was founded in 2014 as a social business with the mission to increase the number of funded women-led businesses while training and inspiring more women to become investors though events, trainings, content and mentorship.

So far, Arya has invested over $2.5M in women led businesses and has an active women angel network. In 2018, Arya received the distinction of Social Business of the Year from Sustainability Academy Turkey.

With her finance, fundraising and entrepreneurship background, Deniz focuses on investment readiness services for predominantly women entrepreneurs and investors as well as strategic corporate partnerships. She is an angel investor as well as an limited partner in Rising Tide, which is part of a global movement to increase women’s participation in angel investing with a global angel community of successful business women across Europe, Middle East, Africa and the USA.

Deniz started her social entrepreneurship journey with ecotourism tours to support rural entrepreneurs as co-founder of Balyolu: The Honey Road after 3,5 years of working as an auditor for Ernst&Young.

Deniz has a B.S. degree in Economics and Mathematics from Carnegie Mellon University, where she also serves on the Board of the Alumni Association in Turkey, as well as an MBA from Koc University. She speaks English, German and Turkish fluently. She has given her first TEDx talk and has also been selected as one of 11 Global Ambassador mentees world wide in 2019.

Mentions

Vital Voices and Bank of America: Global Ambassadors
Hurriyet Kampus “Entrepreneurship is not a job but an attitude”
TEDxUskudarAmericanAcademy
Bogazici University Women Leaders
Investment Readiness Training
Speaker at European Women in Venture Capital
Advisory Board of Digital Transformation Center (DDM) video

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