Ozerk Ozan (born 1979) is a Norwegian fintech entrepreneur, lecturer, best known as the founder of banking-as-a-service provider OpenPayd, European Merchant Bank (EMBank), and the co-founder of Norsk Ideutvikling AS, the social networking service Biip.no. He is a frequent guest speaker at global finance conferences.

Early life

Ozan was born in

Nicosia Nicosia, also known as Lefkosia and Lefkoşa, is the capital and largest city of Cyprus. It is the southeasternmost of all EU member states' capital cities. Nicosia has been continuously inhabited for over 5,500 years and has been the capi ...

, Cyprus, in 1979. At a young age, he moved to Norway with his family. His father, Ozerk Kamil, is a professor at the Department of Education at the

University of Oslo The University of Oslo (; ) is a public university, public research university located in Oslo, Norway. It is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation#Europe, oldest university in Norway. Originally named the Royal Frederick Univ ...

Education

Ozan studied medicine at the University of Oslo from 2002 to 2008.

Career

In 2002, Ozan founded Norsk Ideutvikling AS. In 2005, the company launched the online community Biip.no, which quickly gained popularity, amassing a user base of 450,000 users within two years. In 2008, the company were sold to

Egmont Group The Egmont Group (officially Egmont International Holding A/S; known as Gutenberghus Group until 1992) is a Danish media corporation founded and rooted in Copenhagen, Denmark. The business area of Egmont has traditionally been magazine publishi ...

and

Nettavisen ''Nettavisen'' is a Norway, Norwegian online newspaper, launched in 1996 as the first online-only newspaper in Norway. The current editor is Gunnar Stavrum. As of 2015, it was one of Norway's most popular news websites. History The online newspa ...

. The approximate amount from the share sale was 100 million kroner, as reported by ''

E24 Næringsliv ''E24'', formerly ''E24 Næringsliv'' and ''N24'', is a Norwegian, online business newspaper originally launched on 18 April 2006, merged with ''Dine Penger'' in 2013, and rebranded as ''E24'' in 2019. History During the first three years of op ...

''. In 2018, he consolidated his early companies under OpenPayd, headquartered in London. As of 2024, OpenPayd processes over GBP £100 billion in volume annually. In November 2018, Ozan founded European Merchant Bank (EMBank). By the end of 2021, EMBank's business loan portfolio reached €29.7 million, and the bank generated an income of €4.3 million.

Personal views

Financial Inclusion

Ozerk has frequently mentioned the problems of inclusion facing the underbanked and unbanked, citing the problems arising from the reduced use of cash as currency, the pitfalls of AI that could further discriminate the financially disadvantaged and the growing worldwide inequality gap between the rich and poor.

Fintech industry

Ozerk believes regulators are struggling to keep up with innovations in fintech but that the sector will continue to grow driven by the necessity for Banking-as-as-Service offerings to bridge the gap between traditional and alternative payment methods and the difficulty in businesses obtaining financial licenses. He is similarly bullish on the growth of embedded finance, citing how it can reduce costs, increase profits and drive customer loyalty, with UK brands likely to claim the majority of the £619 billion European financial services market in the next 5 years.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ozan, Ozerk 1979 births Living people