Dr. Ozan Ozerk

Founder of European Merchant Bank UAB

Dr. Ozan Ozerk is a serial entrepreneur and the founder of European Merchant Bank. He founded EMBank in 2018 as a part of a larger goal to become the go-to bank for FinTechs, startups, and SMEs. The bank bridges traditional and digital banking, seamlessly combining proven financial strategies with cutting-edge technology.

Ozan Özerk was born in Nicosia, Cyprus in 1979. At a young age, he moved to Norway with his family. His father, Kamil Özerk, became a professor at the Department of Education in the University of Oslo. Meral R. Özerk – his mother – specialised in care for children with learning disabilities.

After high school, Ozan studied medicine at the University of Oslo from 2000 to 2008. After graduation, he completed his medical internship at Narvik Hospital.

However, Ozan Özerk’s entrepreneurial career started even earlier, alongside his school years and later career, with the real breakthrough arriving as he co-founded Norsk Ideutvikling in 2005. It was an online media company famous for its social networking site Biip.no – a Norwegian Facebook that reached nearly the whole youth population of Norway. The company Biip.no was eventually acquired by Egmont and Nettavisen and Dr. Ozan Özerk stayed on until 2010.

It was after this Biip.no exit, Ozan Özerk worked as a medical doctor until 2015. He held positions as an emergency room doctor in the cities of Narvik, Bærum, and Moss.

Ozan switched careers to the fintech industry in 2015.