Marek Olszewski is a software engineer turned entrepreneur best known as co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Celo, a mobile-first blockchain platform designed to make financial tools accessible to anyone with a smartphone. Alongside Celo, he has made a small number of angel investments in the web3 and fintech space, though the full scope of that portfolio is not widely disclosed in public sources.
Olszewski studied computer science at MIT, where he earned a PhD. Before founding Celo, he worked at Google on distributed systems and large-scale infrastructure. That engineering background directly shaped Celo's architecture, which prioritizes low transaction fees and mobile-friendly wallet experiences. Celo launched its mainnet in April 2020 and has since grown into a significant layer-1 network with a focus on financial inclusion in emerging markets, particularly sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America.
Public information about Olszewski's standalone angel investment activity is limited. He is identified as an angel investor with approximately five known portfolio companies, but deal sizes, coinvestors, and specific project names are not consistently documented in public databases as of early 2026. His investments are believed to concentrate on early-stage crypto infrastructure, DeFi, and mobile fintech – areas that align with the thesis behind Celo.
Notable investments
- Celo (co-founder, not purely investor) – the mobile-first blockchain he co-built. Celo raised over $46 million from investors including a16z, Polychain, and General Catalyst. celo.org
- Public information about the remaining angel portfolio positions is not available in verified sources. Attributing specific deals without confirmation would be inaccurate.
Team
Olszewski co-founded Celo with Rene Reinsberg (CEO, formerly at Google and Locu) and Sep Kamvar (MIT Media Lab professor and social computing researcher). As an individual angel, Olszewski acts independently rather than through a named fund or partnership structure. He has no publicly listed general partners or co-managers for his personal investment activity.
Recent activity
In 2023 and 2024, Celo – the project most closely tied to Olszewski's public identity – went through a significant transition. The Celo community voted to migrate the network from a standalone EVM-compatible chain to an Ethereum layer-2 built on the OP Stack, a move intended to improve interoperability and tap into Ethereum's liquidity. This shift placed Celo within the broader Superchain ecosystem. Olszewski has been a vocal technical voice in that migration process. Specific new angel deals from the same period are not publicly confirmed.
Geographic focus for both Celo and Olszewski's broader work leans toward global emerging markets – with particular attention to Africa and Latin America – alongside a US base in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Given the limited public disclosure around his personal angel portfolio, Olszewski is best understood through his founding work at Celo rather than through a traditional investor track record. His technical credibility in mobile blockchain infrastructure is well established. Whether his angel bets follow the same thesis will become clearer if and when portfolio companies disclose their cap tables or raise follow-on rounds that name him publicly.