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Co-Founder & Partner
Dirish co-founded VERDE in 2015 with Venna, under the VENDI Group portfolio of companies. Prior to founding his business, Dirish had launched a Mauritius desk for Silk Invest, a UK based frontier market focused investment advisory firm. Dirish had also launched the first Africa euro-denominated Fixed Income Fund for Silk Invest in 2014. As the head of Africa Fixed Income for Silk Invest, not only did he lead all the investment and divestment activity, but also built out the entire team and took on all reporting of Silk Invest funds by implementing the Global Investment Performance Standards.
At a young age Dirish was already in a senior executive position, held multiple responsibilities and a key member of various committees. Dirish brings 20 years of financial services industry experience, encompassing the full cycle of investment advisory. He started his career as a proprietary Euro LIBOR trader on LIFFE (London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange) and cultivated the discipline, analytical rigor, and precision, along with the risk awareness essential to a professional trader. Dirish thereafter traded commodity and currency derivatives for clients, before moving on to more senior roles in his career. He led teams in listed markets (equities and bonds) before moving to alternative assets and private equity. He has experience in Africa and in Europe across financial services, FMCG, consumer tech, healthcare, media and real estate. He has made investments in both public and private companies over the years for assets exceeding USD 250m.
Dirish has a strong background in quantitative methods and he brings deep understanding of capital markets having worked on a number of assignments in his previous roles which include listings, delistings, acquisitions, fund raising and divestments. He epitomises discipline, sharpness and loyalty, traits which have helped him forge trusting and lasting relationships with clients and various stakekolders. With. A laser sharp focus on results and an unwavering commitment to creating value, he has displayed a consistent ability to motivate investee companies of his group to deliver business results.
Dirish is in the investment committee, divestment committee and portfolio committee of VENDI Group. Market leading brands from the investee portfolio of VENDI Group include ION News, a pure player media agency, CAFÉ LUX* a coffee chain which holds a franchise from the LUX* group of hotels and Great Delight, a chain of restaurants specialising in chinese cuisine. Dirish plays a critical role in leveraging his wide network to introduce investments, projects, acquisitions and divestments and mentor the new cadre of leaders, as the founders institutionalise their investee companies and provide ongoing strategic management support.
Finally, Dirish is passionate about driving few select education initiatives reflected by his ongoing involvement. Dirish has lectured at university level for a number of years in applied statistics and finance. He is a regular contributor in newspapers and magazines. Dirish also provides training, mentoring and support to a number of founders and their executive teams. Dirish holds a Master of Science in Operations Research with Distinction from the Kent Business School, University of Kent, UK. He also holds a Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Mathematics.
Venna co-founded VERDE in 2015 and has spearheaded the company into a high growth potential company over 4 years. VERDE specialises in research, data analytics, predictive modelling and corporate finance advisory. Venna brings with her more than 12 years of experience in syndicated research, custom solutions and advanced analytics. She is focused on generating even further growth for VERDE by capitalising on untapped segments.
Prior to founding VERDE, Venna spent her career in investments, especially focused on the launch, monitoring and marketing of investment funds. Venna has worked for a number of years in major investment firms in the UK, which included Schroder Investments and UBS Global Asset Management. She has over time acquired deep and holistic experience on modelling, data mining and analytics. She today has a proven track record in the design of research methodologies and in implementing growth strategies, overseeing strategic transactions and creating value for stakeholders.
Venna heads VERDE’s innovation-based initiatives, given her growth-focused vision, which leverages VERDE’s granular and proprietary data, technology assets, and advanced analytics. Venna has also overseen large-scale strategic marketing engagements for clients, which included pricing strategy, demand assessment, marketing spend allocation and optimization, customer profitability improvement, corporate and brand repositioning, brand portfolio optimization, sales force effectiveness, new product launch, and marketing capability building. Venna has worked with a wide variety of survey and syndicated data, internal and external databases, marketing research tools and methodologies, and marketing science models.
Venna received her bachelor’s degree in Mathematics, Operational Research, Statistics and Economics at the University of Warwick in the UK.
