David Nangle

David "Dave" Nangle is the CEO, co-founder and Managing Partner of VEF, a Sweden-listed investment company that backs growth-stage private fintech businesses across the emerging world. Born and raised in Ireland, he holds a BComm International in Business & French from University College Dublin, and has spent his entire career focused on emerging-market financial services, with stints living and working in Moscow and London.

Before founding VEF, Nangle built a two-decade career in emerging-markets equity research and investment banking. He was part of ING Barings' Emerging Markets Research team from 2000 to 2006, serving as Head of EMEA Financials Research, and then spent nearly a decade at Renaissance Capital in Moscow and London as Head of Financials and Research. That gave him what he describes as a "front-row seat" to the evolution of banking and financial services across emerging markets since the late 1990s.

In 2015 he left investment banking to co-found VEF, aiming to back founders building the next generation of financial-services companies across the emerging world. VEF is structured as a permanent-capital vehicle — unlike a traditional VC fund, it is not bound by a fixed investment period or a 7–10 year hold, giving it flexibility on entry and exit timing. The firm is publicly traded on Nasdaq First North Growth Market in Sweden under the ticker VEFAB.

Beyond running VEF, Nangle holds board and advisory roles in the sector, including as a board member of TBC Bank Group / TBC Uzbekistan (alongside QED's Matthew Risley, with the board chaired by Oliver Hughes) and a board member at FinanZero.

• Core conviction: "The secular growth trend of EM fintech outweighs all the macro uncertainty and volatility" — Nangle treats downturns as buying opportunities, noting "we invest harder during volatility."
• Stage & structure: Growth-stage fintech, typically minority stakes with board seats, via a permanent-capital balance sheet (no forced-exit clock).
• What makes him say yes — four principles:
• Focus: "The strongest team possible, focusing on one scale market, on one single product."
• Timing: Lean into volatile periods when valuations are more attractive.
• Local partnership: Prefers co-investing alongside strong local operators rather than going solo.
• Ecosystem collaboration: "Always play nice" — maintain long-term relationships across the VC and fintech community.
• Sectors: Digital/secured lending, payments, SME credit, neobanking, wealth management, payroll/earned-wage access, and solar/embedded finance.
• Portfolio philosophy: Concentration as a goal, not a risk — "back its best companies harder." Creditas alone represents over half of VEF's NAV.
• Geographies: Large-population, under-penetrated financial markets — Brazil, Mexico, India, Pakistan, Turkey, and across Africa (Kenya, Egypt, Nigeria).