Tiger Brands appoints first Venture Capital Fund director

Barati Mahloele, Venture Capital Fund director, Tiger Brands. Source: Supplied

She joins the business from Zebu Investment Partners where she was vice president of investments.

In her new position at Tiger Brands, Mahloele will be responsible for leading the company’s Venture Capital Fund which was launched in mid-2021. The fund’s mandate is to invest in start-up businesses that align to Tiger Brands’ consumer-relevant growth platforms of health and nutrition, snackification, and economical food options, and to grow these businesses alongside the entrepreneurs running them.

Becky Opdyke, chief marketing officer at Tiger Brands, says, “Through the Venture Capital Fund we are looking to expand our participation in new product categories and access a pipeline of opportunities to fuel future growth. As our first Venture Capital Fund Director, Barati brings valuable private equity and commercial finance experience along with an understanding of the consumer goods sector.”

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Mahloele has more than 10 years of experience in commercial finance and private equity beginning her finance career at Unilever where she held roles in South Africa, Kenya, Ethiopia, the UK and Australia. In Kenya and Ethiopia, she was involved in greenfield investment projects.

At Zebu, a pan-African private equity fund manager investing across the food value chain, Barati led the fund’s technology-enabled investments and was instrumental in their consumer goods investments across East and Southern Africa.

Barati holds an MBA from the University of Oxford’s Said Business School, where she was a Said Foundation African Scholar, and a Bachelor of Commerce in Accounting from the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal.