V Shankar

V. Shankar is one of four co-founders of Gateway Partners and serves as the group's Chief Executive Officer, chairing the firm's Private Equity Investment Committees. He leads strategy, management, key investor relations, and business development globally, in addition to originating and executing deals. He is described as bringing over four decades of investment banking, M&A, capital markets, and private equity experience. Gateway, founded around 2015 and operating from management offices in Singapore and Dubai (registered in the Cayman Islands, regulated by MAS in Singapore and the DFSA in the DIFC), invests across the growth markets of South and Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.

Before founding Gateway, Shankar had a senior international banking career. He served as CEO – Europe, Middle East, Africa and Americas and was a member of the global board of Standard Chartered Plc. Prior to that, he was CEO – BA Asia and Head of Investment Banking for Asia Pacific at Bank of America. He continues to sit on numerous boards of Gateway portfolio and related entities, including Dangote Cement PLC and Dangote Industries Limited (Nigeria), FEDA Investment Management and FEDA Capital (Rwanda-based subsidiaries of the African Export-Import Bank), Vision Blue Resources (Guernsey), and AG Café International Management / Tim Hortons Middle East (UAE).

He earned an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, and a Bachelor of Science from Loyola College in Chennai. He was awarded the Public Service Medal by the Government of Singapore in 2014, and has been active with bodies such as Enterprise Singapore, the Asia Society, the U.S. Exim Bank advisory board, and the World Economic Forum. He is a recurring speaker at events including the Milken Institute Global Conference and SuperReturn Emerging Markets.

• Invests in well-established, growing businesses rather than early-stage startups — providing bespoke growth financing and private credit, and acting as an active investor across strategy, people, capital markets, governance, finance, and marketing.
• Core geographic thesis: the "dynamic growth markets" of South/Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Africa (30+ emerging markets), with a focus on managing emerging-markets risk and providing downside protection.
• "Biscuits not bitcoin": he favors tangible, everyday consumer goods and essential services aimed at the rising emerging-markets middle class, and is publicly skeptical of speculative assets — he warned against Tesla, Argentina, and bitcoin in late 2017.
• Sector breadth includes consumer/food products, hospitality and QSR franchises, infrastructure, real estate, water treatment, supply chain, and critical metals & minerals.
• Manages multiple vehicles: Gateway Fund I and Gateway Fund II (private equity) plus the Africa Credit Opportunities Fund (private credit, a JV with the Fund for Export Development in Africa / Afreximbank).