Wesley Schwalje

Operator and advisor at the nexus of policy, technology, development, and venture, early-stage investor and adventure capitalist, advised 14 🦄, support Big Tech and startups to get along with emerging market governments

📍 United Arab Emirates, United Arab Emirates🔄 Updated September 2026💼 38 investments📅 7 years investing🗓 Last invested Feb 2024𝕏 @upgrade_to_unlock
VC🌍 United Arab Emirates20+ investments
38
Total investments
23
Early stage
6
Mid stage
4
Late stage
7y
Years active

Portfolio

38 investments · sorted by recency
All investments
Early stage
Mid stage
Late stage
Investor
Feb 2024
TrySells is an eCommerce accelerator and enabler for consumer brands in the GCC, providing tools and support for easy expansion through online marketplaces like Amazon and Noon. We focus on efficient fulfillment and technology to streamline growth with minimal initial investment on the brand.
Investor
May 2023
Looking To Buy your Dream Vehicle? Buy with OTO’s 10X simple, affordable and convenient experience. Pay Lesser. We challenge you to find a lower monthly instalment for your buy. Own a 2 wheeler for 30% lesser! Upgrade whenever! Move-on from long-term commitments, with OTO. Get upto 50% assured resale value on upgrade & zero hassles. OTO Assistance Only perks & no responsibilities with OTO assistance. Free* Wear & tear fixes with regular maintenance without follow-ups.
Investor
Mar 2023
Akıllı Personel Servisi.
Investor
Oct 2022
BusCaro is on a mission to spearhead social enablement by leveraging technology to ensure safe, reliable and accessible commute at affordable prices.
Investor
Jun 2022
The traditional employer-based benefit scheme is antiquated and doesn’t work for the new economy. More and more people are working independently, but they often dont have access to the same benefits as those who work for a company. This can be really hard when something goes wrong, like getting sick or having an accident. Teddy is designed specifically for independent workers. We offer benefits directly to workers, allowing them to choose the benefits that are most relevant to them regardless of where or how they work. If youd like to learn more about us, partner or join the team - reach out at info@teddy.com.vc
Investor
May 2022
At Finerio Connect we have the technology ready to help fintechs, banks and financial institutions update their services instantly, thus further boosting peoples financial well-being.
Investor
Mar 2022
PowerCred helps lenders and digital platforms across Southeast Asia—particularly Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, and Singapore—automate and simplify credit and risk operations. Our data-driven tools enable faster, smarter, and more secure lending through automated identity verification, credit assessment, fraud detection, and decisioning processes.
Investor
Mar 2022
Creating wealth for 290 Mn underserved Indians.
Investor
Feb 2022
We promote social mobility and financial inclusion through accessible subscription-based financing. # We Are One
Investor
Feb 2022
VC Lab runs the leading venture capital accelerator. The company helps new and emerging managers from around the world to close on capital and run top performing venture capital firms. The mission of the company is to help launch 1,000 new venture capital firms worldwide by 2025.
Investor
Nov 2021
Canta is the first digital platform that enables Africans to send and receive money globally from any device in real-time.
Investor
Nov 2021
CARD91 is an Issuance Platform-as-a-Service company. CARD91 offers unparalleled technology infrastructure to banks, SMEs, corporates & fintech, helping them issue payment instruments (PPI, Debit, Credit & Multi-Currency) to their customers, vendors, partners, and employees thereby enabling faster decision making, controlling, and view on transactions. CARD91’s ability to support multiple payment instrument agnostic use cases strengthens its vision of making issuance seamless and faster for the customers. The cutting-edge technology consists of an Issuer Processor (switch), a card management system, a fully configurable program manager layer, and a host of other ancillary products accentuating issuance. The products empower banks and businesses to get simplified, scalable, secure, and faster card issuance and processing services. CARD91’s products cater to glocal requirements and the deep collaboration with card networks like RuPay, Visa, and Mastercard provides an opportunity to scale the products for customers globally.
Investor
Nov 2021
Alvin provides embeddable money management solutions that help banks cultivate more creditworthy customers, and a consumer app to help people spend more responsibly. Our ultimate goal as a company is to cultivate more Africans who own assets that generate wealth.
Investor
May 2021
Omnisient is a #PrivacyEnhancingTechnology and the leading privacy-preserving #DataCollaboration platform in emerging markets. Omnisient creates a trust-by-design environment for businesses to collaborate on their 1st party consumer data securely, quickly, and easily while remaining compliant with consumer #DataPrivacy regulations. Use cases for privacy-preserving data collaboration include leveraging new #AlternativeData sources for #FinancialInclusion, improving the customer experience, and identifying new business opportunities for growth. Founded in Cape Town, South Africa, Omnisient is used by more than 80 of Africa’s largest banks, insurers, retailers, and healthcare organizations. INDUSTRY RECOGNITION 2024 * Finovate Award for Excellence in Financial Inclusion * Microsoft Partner of the Year - Finalist * Africa Bank 4.0 Awards: Most Impactful Data Analytics Solution for Financial Inclusion * LESI Innovation Award 2023 * World Economic Forum - Technology Pioneer * Fast Companys Next Big Things in Tech * TechCrunch Startup Battlefield 200 * Banking Tech Awards - "Tech of the Future – AI and Data – Decision Engine" * DataIQ Awards: Finalist - Data for Society * IAPP Privacy Innovation Award - Finalist * MMA Smarties Awards: Gold for Data Insights, Silver for Social Impact Marketing 2022 * South African Loyalty Awards: Vendor of the Year
Investor
May 2021
Businessonbot is India’s first one-stop solution for D2C brands to run their business on WhatsApp. We provide text based multilingual chat solutions with CRM integrations and marketing automations. We help businesses to create and engage with their loyal customer base on WhatsApp.
Show all 38 investments ↓
Experience · 42 entries
All (42)
Investments (38)
Founder (2)
2026
Co-Founder
Mar 2026
TimelyAI is building a Marketing Saas for Time-based Businesses. “The idea is to solve the most burning need of our customers- Growing their clientele at an affordable price and being able to build lasting relationships with them for repeat business and referrals.” "Coming soon with something extremely crazy!"
Co-Founder
Mar 2026
Red Tape Ventures is a Dubai-based seed-stage venture fund investing in MENA marketplaces and enablement technology companies where regulatory complexity creates barriers to entry that can translate into durable competitive advantage. We back MENA founders building category-defining companies where success depends not only on product and market execution, but also on the ability to navigate regulatory complexity. We focus on sectors where licensing, compliance, government engagement, and public policy shape go-to-market strategy, competitive positioning, and long-term defensibility. This segment is structurally underserved. Generalist investors often treat regulatory complexity as binary risk. We believe that, when underwritten correctly, it can function as a moat, enabling market leaders to emerge in categories that are difficult for competitors to enter or replicate.
2024
Investor
Feb 2024
TrySells is an eCommerce accelerator and enabler for consumer brands in the GCC, providing tools and support for easy expansion through online marketplaces like Amazon and Noon. We focus on efficient fulfillment and technology to streamline growth with minimal initial investment on the brand.
2023
Investor
May 2023
Looking To Buy your Dream Vehicle? Buy with OTO’s 10X simple, affordable and convenient experience. Pay Lesser. We challenge you to find a lower monthly instalment for your buy. Own a 2 wheeler for 30% lesser! Upgrade whenever! Move-on from long-term commitments, with OTO. Get upto 50% assured resale value on upgrade & zero hassles. OTO Assistance Only perks & no responsibilities with OTO assistance. Free* Wear & tear fixes with regular maintenance without follow-ups.
Investor
Mar 2023
Akıllı Personel Servisi.
Show all 42 entries ↓
Investment activity
2019–2024 · 38 investments
20192202013202113202272023220241
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