Danladi Verheijen
Interview with Danladi Verheijen
CO-FOUNDER and CEO, VEROD
Lives in: Nigeria
In 2008, Danladi Verheijen co-founded Verod Capital Administration, a non-public fairness funding agency centered on West Africa. How we made it in Africa editor-in-chief Jaco Maritz interviewed him about his journey as an investor and the teachings he has learnt alongside the way in which.
Matters mentioned in the course of the interview embody:
The deal that put Verod on the map
Backing Moniepoint, an African unicorn
Why he likes the gymnasium enterprise
His hardest moments as an investor
Lengthy-distance operating as a metaphor for enterprise
Watch the complete interview beneath:
Interview abstract
One of many offers that put Nigeria-based funding agency Verod Capital Administration on the map was an funding in beverage cans.
In 2009, Verod acquired a forty five.3% stake in GZ Industries (GZI), an aluminium can producer that provides brewers and delicate drink producers. The funding offered GZI with the capital to construct its first manufacturing facility. Till then, beverage cans have been imported into Nigeria from as far afield as Latin America and Spain. As Danladi Verheijen, co-founder of Verod, places it: “You’re transport air from Latin America.”
GZI commissioned its first manufacturing facility close to Lagos in 2010, adopted by a second plant in Aba, in southeastern Nigeria. It expanded past Nigeria in 2020 with a facility in South Africa, and most just lately opened a manufacturing facility in Kenya in early 2026.
Verod has exited its place in GZI over time, together with partial gross sales in 2012 and 2015.
Founding Verod
Verod was began in 2008 by Verheijen and his accomplice, Eric Idiahi. That they had recognized a scarcity of long-term capital for West African entrepreneurs trying to develop their companies.
The early years have been powerful. The personal fairness business in West Africa was nonetheless younger, that means Verod needed to win belief on two fronts. “You needed to persuade entrepreneurs to belief you, and these entrepreneurs weren’t used to getting third-party capital into their companies. We [also] needed to persuade traders that West Africa was investable, which [was] additionally a little bit of a problem.”
With no monitor report to level to, Verod began with actual property investments, realizing it was a sector the traders it hoped to draw have been already aware of. “We did a few actual property offers within the early days as a result of we thought we may get cash for actual property offers simpler,” Verheijen says. Because the agency constructed its credentials, it moved away from property and into the consumer-focused companies that make up its portfolio right this moment.
Investing in gyms
Considered one of Verheijen’s favorite investments is i-Health, a sequence of gyms based in Nigeria in 2015 by entrepreneur Foluso Ogunwale.
Regardless of working solely round 30 shops, i-Health is already seven occasions the scale of its nearest competitor in West Africa – and Verheijen sees important room for progress. “Our membership base is mainly 1% of 1% of the inhabitants of Nigeria. It’s actually nothing. We’re nonetheless simply scratching the floor,” Verheijen says. “I feel [in] the UK, possibly 16 to 18% of the inhabitants goes to a gymnasium. Within the US, it’s 25 to 30%. So actually, we may very well be 1,000 occasions bigger.”
Past Nigeria, i-Health is eyeing enlargement into Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire.
Betting on schooling
Verheijen can also be bullish on schooling. Final yr, Verod bought its stake in TAG West Africa, which operates Lancaster College Ghana. The establishment presents college students a UK diploma at a fraction of the price.
“There’s numerous demand for schooling,” Verheijen says. “Households will do something to make sure that their kids get a high-quality schooling. They’ll make all of the sacrifices which can be obligatory to try this.” The trick, he explains, is backing operators who can construct robust manufacturers and earn the belief of fee-paying dad and mom.
However conventional schooling is capital-intensive – campuses, lecture rooms, workers – and that makes it gradual and costly to increase. For Verheijen, expertise presents a means round these constraints. “Most definitely the way in which to fulfill the scholars the place they’re is by way of expertise.”
The case for humility
One of many classes Verheijen has taken from practically twenty years of investing is the significance of humility. Unstable markets like Nigeria, he says, punish overconfidence.
The agency operates in an atmosphere the place it always must study. “We have to be very reflective,” he says. When a deal delivers robust returns, the workforce asks itself whether or not the end result was the results of talent or luck. When an funding disappoints, the query is whether or not the issues may have been foreseen.
“It’s not at all times us,” Verheijen says. “And for those who at all times suppose it’s your self, then there’s a specific amount of hubris, and also you don’t study and also you don’t develop. We’re solely nearly as good because the final fund.”
Lengthy-distance operating as a metaphor for enterprise
“There aren’t loads of occasions the place I’m not working,” Verheijen says. “I discover myself working or occupied with work nearly across the clock.”
On the events he does step away from the workplace, Verheijen is an avid long-distance runner and has accomplished marathons around the globe, together with Tokyo, New York and South Africa’s Comrades ultra-marathon.
For Verheijen, the game is a metaphor for enterprise. It calls for psychological fortitude and the braveness to even attain the beginning line. “Each bone in your physique says, this doesn’t make any sense. Let’s simply give up now,” he notes. “And also you get midway via, you need to give up. And you then say, hey, look, I’m already midway. It doesn’t make sense to return to the start line. Let’s simply get via this.”
He additionally values the camaraderie – one thing he sees mirrored in personal fairness. “It’s actually a folks enterprise,” he explains. “Despite the fact that operating generally feels such as you’re operating alone, there’s additionally this sense of, , you’re all on this collectively.”
“I actually get pleasure from operating and simply the sense of freedom it provides me and readability of thought and simply actually pushing my physique,” he says. “It’s not glamorous, however it’s actually enjoyable, which looks like what it’s wish to construct a non-public fairness agency on this area.”
