Entrepreneurship requires a lot of leaps of faith, especially when you have a family that you support. Fatima Vawda founder and CEO of 27four Investment Managers a leading independent South African-based multi-manager investor company, that focuses on understanding and addressing the evolving needs of retirement funds and individual investors through the provision of unique product solutions and portfolio customisation options. To start this business Vawda quit an extremely good paying job to kick start her entrepreneurial journey with only one client and a laptop.
“People can never know what taking risks is all about until they have taken such a risk. Yes it was scary, I had two small babies and my husband was working and we had our home on mortgage, so taking this risk I was not sure maybe it will work out, maybe it wont work out but I think that my commitment was always there.” She says that during the first three years there were many times when people came to her to say that this is not going to work out and why cant she just get a nice cushy job in a big corporate company. “You’ll get options, you’ll get shares etc but with me I had a vision of what I wanted to do and I stuck it through and remained committed and I think that’s really one of my biggest strengths, is to end what you start and to follow things through. I took the risk, I knew I had a vision and I knew I had to follow through” Born and raised in Lanasia, South of Johannesburg by a single parent in a four room house.
“We are basically a signatory alongside very large investors globally to say that we want to improve the world and make it a better place. If we look at climate change for example and how that impacts financial returns, look at Cape Town as an investment destination at the moment, people are saying no it’s not an attractive destination because of the drought
“I grew up during the apartheid era and I grew up in the Indian community called Lenasia which is 30 kilometres South of Johannesburg and just across the road from Soweto and Eldorado Park and yes I grew up with a single mom. I went to a state primary school, went to a state high school, graduated from high school and went straight to Wits University and then completed my tertiary education at Wits University.” Vawda studying Mathematics in university, and with many years of experience in the complex environment of financial management after tertiary she then started her first company Legal a stockbroking firm. “So I worked for a couple of private sector institutions but I just felt that the South African financial service sector was a largely untransformed sector and the roles that were being played by women, in particular, black people within the sector was far few across the sector and for me that was extremely disappointing. So having gained sufficient practical experience within the sector I just felt that it was time to revolutionise this sector and play a meaningful role in transforming this sector to ensure that we democratise and level the playing field in the sector because basically until ten years ago the sector mirrored a pre-apartheid sector. And the financial sector plays a key role in our economy; you know it contributes to access to over 50% of our GDP. “ That being a big concern for her, she says, “I was quite excited, and set up an asset management business and largely not passive empowerment but really about making opportunities available for black intellectual property and capital to play a meaningful role within the sector and within the broader economy, industrialising our economy and making an impact.”
27four Investment Managers has been awarded many accolades due to the impact of the work that they do. They are also part of the United Nations Principle for Responsible Investors globally. “We are basically a signatory alongside very large investors globally to say that we want to improve the world and make it a better place. If we look at climate change for example and how that impacts financial returns, look at Cape Town as an investment destination at the moment, people are saying no it's not an attractive destination because of the drought. So we know that climate change and environmental issues, social issues, governance issues they impact the ability for the economies to grow and be sustainable. So we, therefore, incorporate those global sound practices in the way we make investment decisions. So if we know of a company that’s polluting the environment or if we know of a company that has bad services and policies in relation to women or employees or that have directors on the board that are conflicted we should not be supporting and investing with those companies."
27Four Investment managers Vital Stats
Start-up: R200 000
Number of Staff : 61
Turnover: R100 M (2007)
Key players: Fatima and Exco