Two decades of experience: the first structuring multi-billion-dollar infrastructure deals across emerging markets; the second building and scaling hospitality and travel businesses across Africa and beyond.
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 us 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.
We look for businesses with this effect — those that resonate beyond the transaction, compound in ways traditional metrics can't fully measure, and endure across cycles.
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.
It was an education in high-stakes due diligence, cross-border negotiation, and delivering results in emerging and frontier markets.
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, operating across multiple countries with a reputation for product innovation and operational depth.
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 500+ keys, building new distribution channels across B2B and direct — while tackling the challenges of scaling fast: talent acquisition, systems architecture, and process discipline.
Today, through Komorebi Holdings, I publish independent investment research on small-cap, publicly listed travel and travel-adjacent companies worldwide — and advise founders, funds, and operators on strategy, growth, and capital allocation across the sector.
The practice draws on two decades of building and scaling businesses in travel, and a prior decade structuring complex transactions in emerging markets. Originally from the UK and now based in Cape Town, I work with a small number of clients and maintain a concentrated public equity portfolio aligned with the themes I research and write about.
We follow threads wherever they lead — from e-sailing manufacturers in France to safari operators in Botswana to airport concession operators in Turkey and Kazakhstan. The best ideas often live at the edges of conventional sector maps.
We invest and advise with a long duration in mind. The Komorebi effect compounds slowly. We are not optimising for the next quarter.
When we find a business that creates value beyond the transaction, we back it with conviction — whether that means a concentrated position or a long engagement.
Whether you're a founder, fund manager, or operator — we'd like to hear from you.
lee@komorebiholdings.com