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ABOUT GEOFF MILLER
Drawing on thirty years’ experience in the finance world, Geoff Miller has
a track record of innovation and continues to nurture new businesses
through their earliest stages with his latest venture, the investment and
advisory business Afaafa that he runs with his wife.
Geoff Miller has always sought to do the things that others choose not
to. He first started his career in finance by taking on the implementation
of the Financial Services Act 1986 for a corporate trustee when his
colleagues chose to avoid what they saw as a thankless task. That led
to the creation of a role for himself as a fund manager for the trust assets
within the department, and onwards to a career in finance that has
continued to focus on the difficult things that others choose to avoid.
Having had a successful career in the UK, as a number one rated
analyst and fund manager, Geoff moved offshore in 2008, first to Russia
to work in a Russian investment bank sorting out their research product,
and then on to Singapore before moving to Guernsey. After leaving
the Russian investment bank he was asked whether he would consider
attempting to turn around a small, apparently failing, investment
company. At the time, in spring 2009, the company had lost 96% of
its value in its three-year life. When Geoff left the CEO position six and
a half years later shareholders had made 15 times their money and
the failing investment company had been transformed into one of the
world’s leading investors in alternative finance platforms for SMEs.
The turnaround of the investment company into what became GLI
Finance was partly through organic growth but was mainly about deal
making. When Miller asked whether GLI’s first acquisition target, a listed
company called Asset Management Investment Company plc was
advisable, the CEO of a large asset manager who knew the business
well advised against it, because it was too difficult. This was just the sort
of motivation that Miller thrived on and he completed the acquisition in
January 2011, making a more than 60% return on the investment within
a year.
In 2012 he became interested in the burgeoning peer to peer finance
sector and began looking for businesses to work with that could provide
finance to the SME sector. As these were early stage companies,
Miller chose to seek a broad spread of investment across a range of
companies, for three reasons. Firstly, these were early stage companies
and not all would succeed; secondly it was important, to enable GLI to
have strategic discussions with larger financial organisations and with
GEOFF MILLER
CEO of Afaafa
Government for GLI to become strategically important to the sector;
and thirdly, having a broad number of complementary businesses
would allow cross-selling of products across different platforms and
sharing infrastructure.
From mid-2013 to mid-2015 he did 19 deals to acquire a stake in
businesses providing all manner of finance to small businesses, from
financing invoices of a few thousand pounds to long term facilities of
several million pounds. The businesses were based in the UK, US, Europe
and sub-Saharan Africa, and by the end of 2015 the businesses had the
potential to put tens of millions of pounds to work every month.
However, the Board of GLI felt that a more narrowly focused strategy
would be more appropriate and Miller left in December 2015. In the
following year, the share price of GLI Finance fell over 40%.
Rather than regarding this as a set-back, Miller embarked on a broader
project, this time jointly with his wife Sasha Kazantseva, to transform the
world of early stage investment and to create their own powerhouse in
innovation across a range of sectors.
The business, called Afaafa, was founded by Miller and Kazantseva in
2013, originally as a vehicle in which to hold their angel investments. In
addition, in 2014, it had acquired 100% of a local Guernsey business,
IslandMums.com, which provided an annual subscription discount card
across the Channel Islands. However, what the founders wanted to do
was to create something that can help create value in different ways
across a range of sectors.
The focus of the companies with which Afaafa works reflect the
backgrounds of the founders in marketing, technology, and finance.
As well as investment, Afaafa provides consultancy services, in addition
to sitting on an Advisory Board or being a Director of the company,
depending on what the individual investee company requires.
Particularly notable within the current portfolio is FitnessGenes, a
company that provides DNA analysis to give specific fitness and
There are emerging
businesses around the world that are
seeking to innovate within the trade
finance and receivables
finance space.
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FINANCE
MONTHLY
GAME
CHANGER AWARDS
2017
54
www.
finance-monthly
.com