Sameer Gehlaut to Raj Kotecha: 5 investors keeping London alive through the recession

Without investors, fresh ideas and exciting talent could be left with no opportunity to bring their ideas into fruition, leaving the city with a lack of innovation and limited prospects for long-term growth. Here are the top investors with the confidence to continue improving London through the upcoming recession.

Raj Kotecha, co-founder of real estate investment firm Amro Partners, knows London inside-out, having studied his undergraduate degree at the London School of Economics and working as a real estate entrepreneur and investor for over 20 years. His specialities are student living and Build to Rent projects, but he stands out from the competition with his dedication to Net Zero and sustainability.

He is bringing a new wave of investment to London with Amro Partners, working alongside Flemyn to put £200m behind a new development in Croydon. This project involves converting Croydon Park Hotel into a buy-to-rent project building, providing top-level amenities such as coworking spaces, gyms, wellness centres, and rooftop gardens. Building is due to get underway next year, with a completion date of 2025. This building is hoped to draw young professionals into the area with high quality rental properties in an up-and-coming part of London.

Born and raised in the city, Henry Smith is the founder of Aitch Group and has a strong background in supporting local communities through his real estate investments. He is committed to bringing the vibrant soul he knows and loves from his home in East London to the rest of the city and making it an exciting place to live for all its residents.

Aitch Group has recently committed £100m to establishing a new portfolio in London and the South East. After making this announcement at the start of 2022, Aitch Group’s projects are already well underway with £31m having been used across 3 sites in the city, and the remaining £69m to be used before the end of this year. These sites are intended to be student accommodation, residential buildings, and retirement living. Alongside this, the group is involved in revamping the Grade I listed St Michael & All Angels Church in Shoreditch in collaboration with other investors.

Sameer Gehlaut is a hugely successful entrepreneur, best known for founding the Indiabulls Group, home to the most successful insurance company in India. In recent years he has turned his attention to London and has been building his investment portfolio in the city. In 2012 he founded Clivedale, an independent super-prime developer based in Mayfair, London.

Gehlaut is committed to investment in the capital, having already ploughed over £750m into the economy over the past decade. Clivedale has worked on some iconic projects, including 73-77 Brook Street and 20 Carlton House Terrace. Having recently signed a record-breaking deal with BP, Gehlaut is ensuring that the most successful businesses in the city are working at their best and continue to contribute to the economy through tough times. The sheer scale of Clivedale’s upcoming projects are helping support the jobs of countless Londoners – his previous ventures have already provided thousands of new jobs, keeping families as well as businesses afloat.

Co-founders of Claret Capital, Johan Kampe and David Bateman have worked together in business for decades. They have focused their investments on the tech industry and are now setting their sights on London as the next big thing – contrary to many others in the sector who are remaining in Silicon Valley or investing in emerging economies.

Claret Capital recently announced that they had raised over £250m in funds to invest in London’s tech startups. Given that Claret Capital’s portfolio already includes the Old Street-based digital software firm StreetCloud and the hugely popular luxury shopping app Lyst, it is expected that his new round of investment will boost London’s economy significantly.

Founder of Fuel Ventures, Mark Pearson is a London based entrepreneur and investor. He is the brains behind the UK’s largest website for discounts, My Voucher Codes, and has since invested in numerous early-stage businesses. Fuel Ventures currently has over 20 businesses under its umbrella and has found huge success with these businesses – they deliver an average of a 70x return on investment for their European e-commerce companies.

Some of Fuel Ventures’ most recent investments include Wombat, an online stocks and shares trading platform aiming to make it easier for people to invest, and Guider, a mentoring platform designed to help large companies improve employee satisfaction and wellbeing. Fuel Ventures has invested £4m and £2.4m in the companies respectively and, given that Pearson’s firm is one of the most active of its type in the UK, it is likely that many more will be boosted by his funding in the near future.

Thanks to investors such as these, the economic future of London is looking less bleak than it may have otherwise. With the tech and property sectors getting the funding they desperately need to be successful, it is hoped that they will be the businesses able to keep London afloat through whatever crisis is thrown its way.