Rob Hamilton

Rob Hamilton is the founder and Managing Director of Ashanti Capital, a Perth-based institutional stockbroking and advisory firm he established in 2017 with offices in Perth and Hong Kong. The firm serviced the Pacific Rim with corporate finance, institutional sales and funds management, and Hamilton also acts as Investment Manager for the associated Ashanti Investment Fund, which runs a global mandate focused on emerging companies. In mid-2020, Ashanti Capital merged with Sternship Advisers — a boutique corporate-finance firm founded in 2017 by the former UBS Perth team — where the deal established the group's Equity Capital Markets division and where Hamilton now serves as a Managing Director.

Before founding Ashanti, Hamilton spent 2010–2015 in Hong Kong as part of the founding team at ReOrient Financial Markets (REORIENT Group), where he was Managing Director in the Equity Capital Markets team. In that role he focused on capital-raising for Hong Kong-, Singapore- and Australian-listed equities as well as private investments. Prior to moving to Asia, he spent roughly four years in Perth working in corporate finance and institutional sales at Macquarie Bank and at Argonaut, two of Western Australia's most prominent resources-focused financial houses.

Today Hamilton's work sits at the intersection of investment banking and principal investing: through Sternship/Ashanti he advises on M&A, equity capital markets (pre-IPOs, IPOs, RTOs, convertibles and secondary raisings) and debt, while through the Ashanti Investment Fund he takes direct stakes in early-stage and emerging growth companies. His network is described as an ultra-high-net-worth distribution base with deep institutional relationships across the Asia-Pacific region.

• Invests principally through the Ashanti Investment Fund, described as having "a global mandate focusing on emerging companies" — i.e., early-stage and high-growth private businesses.
• Comfortable across the capital lifecycle: the core firm raises money for pre-IPOs, IPOs, RTOs, convertibles and second-market offerings for both listed and unlisted companies, so Hamilton evaluates deals with an eye toward a clear equity-markets exit path.
• Backs founders alongside credible co-investors — his disclosed deals were syndicated with established WA investors and institutions rather than done solo.
• Leans on an Asia-Pacific / Pacific Rim institutional and ultra-high-net-worth distribution network, making him useful for companies that will eventually need capital-markets access, not just a single cheque.
• Sector-agnostic in practice, but observed conviction in deep tech / cybersecurity and clean aerospace, in addition to the resources and industrials that anchor the underlying advisory business.