About

About Komorebi

Project Finance – The Foundation

I began my career as a project finance lawyer with Milbank and Norton Rose, advising on multi-billion-dollar infrastructure, mining, and energy projects in some of the world’s most complex jurisdictions. Highlights included the US$4.4 billion Oyu Tolgoi Copper and Gold Mine in Mongolia — one of the largest mining developments in the world — as well as multiple power projects across Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. This period honed my ability to run high-stakes due diligence, navigate cross-border negotiations, and deliver results in emerging and frontier markets.

Komorebi (木漏れ日) is a Japanese word without a perfect English equivalent. It describes the sensation of sunlight filtering through the leaves of trees — a fleeting moment that can be felt but never fully captured in words or images.

It struck me as a perfect metaphor for the intangible benefits of travel, movement and connection. The best travel experiences — and the best products, services, or investments — share this quality: they create a feeling that must be experienced to be understood.

From a Feeling to a Philosophy

Robert Pirsig, in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, describes “Quality” as something that exists before we can intellectualise it. It’s both subjective and objective, both in the thing and in the experience of it. You recognise it instantly, but struggle to define it.

Nick Sleep took a similar approach in investing — seeking businesses that deliver compounding value through intangibles like trust, customer delight, and cultural depth. These advantages often defy neat quantification, yet they are the source of enduring returns.

Komorebi as a Compass

At Komorebi, we apply this lens to travel, mobility, infrastructure, and the ventures we build or back. We look for experiences and enterprises with a “Komorebi effect” — those that resonate beyond the transaction, that create lasting emotional and practical value, and that compound in ways traditional metrics can’t fully measure.

Just as you can’t explain the exact feeling of sunlight through leaves, you can’t fully express the value of certain experiences or companies until you’ve lived them. And once you have, you can’t forget them.

Ker & Downey Africa – Scaling Across a Continent

After years in global finance, I stepped into high-end travel with Ker & Downey Africa — first as CEO of the newly launched online travel agency division, then in a leadership role across the group. Over the next decade, we raised external capital, launched new ventures, and expanded into key markets, including Grand Africa Safaris in Tanzania. By the time I moved on, Ker & Downey Africa had become one of the continent’s leading luxury safari operators, known for its service excellence, creative product design, and operational scale.

Fluent Living – Zero to Scale

More recently, I co-founded Fluent Living, a serviced living platform in Cape Town, in partnership with the property development company Blok. In under two years, we grew from zero to managing four apartment buildings and over 250 keys, building new distribution channels across B2B and direct, while tackling the challenges of scaling fast — from talent acquisition to systems architecture and process discipline.

About Lee Kelsall

Komorebi – Investing in the Next Chapter

Today, through Komorebi Holdings, I combine two decades of experience building businesses in the travel sector with my background in complex deal-making. I invest in small-cap, publicly listed travel and travel-adjacent companies worldwide and build new ventures from the ground up.

Originally from the UK and now based in Cape Town, I remain deeply committed to the global travel industry and to shaping its next chapter of growth.

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