This article features as part of IFA Magazine’s celebration of World Earth Day.
MVK Group Holdings, led by Manish Karani, is a purpose-led company investing in a new era of ethical investment and wealth creators.
A diverse sets of entrepreneurs who have suffered mental and physical adversity which has resulted in them championing their focus on climate change, education, humane animal treatment, veganism and real estate.
Manish and team have championed a new sustainable investment model, which emphasises the importance of integrity and authenticity. The ‘greed is good’ mentality epitomised by 1980s investors is unattractive to most millennials, instead MVK focuses on ‘value creation,’ A new generation of high-net worth individuals – the second or third generations of wealthy families who are more concerned about doing good, getting involved and financial returns being made as a by-product of this.
Responsible investment addressing pressing issues in society such as the climate crisis.
“The first question a traditional investment firm will ask, is what is the minimum investment amount you can deploy? I made a decision to leave working at a traditional bank due to this ridiculous question. At MVK we ask clients more meaningful questions. What difference do you and your children want to make to this world? How are we going to ensure the entrepreneurs we support succeed in doing this? MVK Group was set up to make more purposeful investment choices for clients.” – Founder, Manish Karani.
Mr Karani’s belief in supporting Founders, who have overcome adversity chimes with his own experience – he founded MVK Group after the sudden loss of his father and despite the complications that come with managing Type 1 diabetes. “There are so many people who go through these difficult times and feel alone – and at MVK Group we want them to know that they are not,” Mr Karani said.
That MVK cares is also reflected in the alignment between their portfolio companies’ values and Manish’s personal belief system—a belief system which he attributes to his late father. Manish Karani was raised with strong Indian value principles which include Education First, Not wasting food, and not hurting animals.
MVK Group has been investing and proving his model over the past 5 years through the likes of investing in Purezza, the largest plant-based pizzeria in Europe ; OLIO an app to tackle food waste (went onto raise over £52m); vegan chocolate bar LOVE RAW (now backed by the Founding Investors in Beyond Meat) and Instrucko, an online education company which gives opportunities to hundreds of millions of children across India.
A key factor in the company’s investment decisions is the ‘adversity test.’
“We strongly believe entrepreneurs who have overcome adversity such as a huge loss, illness or failure are the best investments,” Mr Karani, explained.
“We believe this gives them more perseverance than the average person, to drive them to build a successful business. Ninety per cent of successful investing is about backing the right entrepreneurs. We love to hear strong background stories.
“The story behind a start-up is a driving factor to how well they perform. Some of the most successful people in the world, such as Oprah Winfrey, Cristiano Ronaldo, Jeff Bezos and Lewis Hamilton suffered huge personal loss and sacrifice before becoming leading entrepreneurs – they failed so many times.”
Background information on CEO and Founder Manish – the founder of MVK Group Holdings. He currently focuses on venture capital and real estate. Manish, has over 10 years’ banking experience at Coutts, Credit Suisse and Grant Thornton in London, Switzerland and Singapore, managing investments for high net worth individuals as well as advising Family Offices on structuring new investment opportunities. Manish has invested over £600m of Equity into Funds and Private Equity Transactions over the past 12 years.
