Investment Manager/Associate
Location: Dubai
Client This is the private investment vehicle of two private investors based in Dubai, with interests across sport, media, consumer, technology and real estate. It combines its portfolio, operated from Dubai and the UK.
The role An investment seat inside the platform as it forms. The work is the combined portfolio through and after the merger: valuations, performance reviews, financing, bolt-on acquisitions and disposals, and new group-level transactions across sport, retail, leisure, consumer and technology, supporting the Investment Directors on the larger ones and running the smaller ones.
The portfolio spans sports technology, sports media and content, consumer brands, food and drink, retail, marketing services, and software.
Responsibilities:Deal execution Screening inbound opportunities and forming an early view on what merits the principals' time. Building financial models and valuations from scratch, including for businesses with lumpy or informal financials. Running diligence end-to-end: question lists, data rooms, adviser coordination, reference and customer calls, reading the accounts. Supporting structuring and negotiation alongside the principals: term sheets, shareholder protections, earn-outs, commercial mandates. Writing short, decision-ready investment notes for the principals and the Investment Committee. Managing completion and the first hundred days with founders.
Portfolio and operations This is a principal-led group, not a fund with a back office. The seat carries the portfolio work that keeps forty companies visible to the principals. Performance packs, board materials and improvement recommendations for founders who need them. Valuations and financing analysis across the group, not only in the three focus sectors. Diligence question sets and data rooms for group-level transactions led by the Investment Directors. Being the person who chases things until they're done.
Requirements:4 - 8 years on the principal side, in private equity, growth equity or a family office, having run deals rather than supported them. Venture capital experience is a plus, particularly where it involved working closely with founders after completion. Direct experience of minority positions in founder-led businesses. This is a specific skill, and most candidates will not have it. Someone who still does the work: builds the model, reads the contract, sits with the founder. No team reports to this seat. Able to manage multiple workstreams at once and as comfortable with the unglamorous ones as with the deals.
What it offers Genuine breadth of transaction exposure: founder-led minority deals through to group-level acquisitions, across sectors. Direct proximity to the principals and the Operating Partner from week one. A platform with stated ambition to grow its ticket sizes. The role grows as the vehicle does. A route to Investment Director for the right person.