Sev Vettivetpillai
“We work in collaboration with entrepreneurs to grow and expand small and medium-sized businesses across regional markets. This has resulted insignificant South-South trade as well as an increase in the local sourcing of goods and services, demonstrating economic development and vitality which under pin private sector development.”
Sev Vettivetpillai has spent over 25 years investing private capital in emerging economies pioneering what is now known as Impact Investing, previously commonly referred to as “sustainable investing”.
Sev was responsible for designing and developing the Aureos Sustainability Index (ASI) in 2004 and subsequently integrating it into the investment decision making process leading to sustainable value creation. Many years later he started to apply new theories developed by such institutions as UN SDGs, GIIN, UNPRI, etc., and his practical application to investing into new pioneering structures and models such as combining traditional fund structures with untested models by working closely with different actors such as investors, academia, technology providers, and frankly trial and error.
An engineering graduate from Imperial College London, Sev quickly realised that engineering wasn’t his passion and looked into the finance industry by initially training as an analyst in 1992. From there he moved into direct investing in private markets specialising in small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in South Asia where he was one of the earliest investors in sectors such as healthcare, technology, hospitality, food & beverage, financial services and light manufacturing. Several years later he was a pioneer in setting up fund management teams in new markets, new funds and managing one of the largest global emerging market platforms with several private equity funds ranging from early stage to growth capital across Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe.
In that time Sev held several senior roles in the Private Equity industry and has been involved in hundreds of investments and exits, managing billions of dollars, providing financial returns coupled with positive social and environmental impact.
Sev built one of the most successful emerging markets-focused private equity platforms investing in 30+ markets across 4 continents in 300+ SMEs and exited from 200+ companies. Sev was a pioneer in developing innovative investment structures and developed tools, including but not limited to ASI, that enabled him to build a very successful investment platform that combined commercial and impact returns to investors. He was one of the first to develop and successfully execute regional businesses and exit to multinationals.
Sev continues to be passionate about the role of SMEs in the economic development and vitality of emerging markets and the power of Impact Investing to both deliver UN Sustainable Development Goals and spur the next generation of sustainable businesses.
He remains in demand to educate and help develop forward-thinking private equity houses around the world including academic institutions.