James Alexandroff OBE is an investor and philanthropist with a particular interest in Africa.
He advises the Trustees of Perivoli Innovations which invests in early-stage businesses, with a focus on addressing climate change, health, social inclusion and productivity enhancement. Over sixty investments have been made since 2016.
Profits from Perivoli Innovations go to funding the Perivoli Foundation, a U.K. Charity which James settled in 2019. The Foundation has an Africa focus.
The Perivoli Foundation supports the Perivoli Schools Trust, the Perivoli Climate Trust, the Perivoli Rangeland Institute and the Perivoli Africa Research Centre at the University of Bristol as well as a selection of founder-led charities.
The Perivoli Schools Trust, established in 2012, focuses on enhancing the quality of nursery school education in Sub-Saharan Africa. It has trained over 22,000 nursery school teachers across six countries with 200,000 being the ultimate target.
The Perivoli Africa Research Centre (PARC) at the University of Bristol, established in 2019, aims to foster more balanced research partnerships between universities in the UK and Africa. It has capstone projects underway on care systems, gender rights, water usage and the preservation of coral reefs.
The Perivoli Climate Trust, established in 2020, supports research projects at Universities in Africa into climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies, the most promising of which are implemented by the Perivoli Rangeland Institute.
The Perivoli Rangeland Institute, headquartered in Namibia, is implementing a “carbon farming” initiative involving the conversion of invasive bushes into biochar for feeding into degraded soil, as well as the introduction of other climate-friendly agriecological farming practices.
James co-founded Arisaig Partners in 1996, an emerging market-focused fund management company headquartered in Singapore. Responsibility for the firm was passed on to the next generation of employees in 2017. He remains a director of the firm.
He gifted his ownership of Arisaig Partners in 2000 to the Perivoli Trust, of which he is a Trustee, which has established and funded the Perivoli entities described above.
James oversees the Perivoli entities from his home office in Somerset. He was awarded an OBE in January 2023.