The Evolvence Group

Established in 2001 by Mr. Khaled Almheiri, the Evolvence Group has benefited from his investment management expertise gained at the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority‘s (ADIA) North America equities desk to take on advisory and placement roles. The Group has since experienced phenomenal growth and success in its business activities, the result of its philosophy of identifying and meeting the needs of its target markets.

The Group was one of the first international players to realize the potential of India, and launched in 2005 its Indian private equity platform. It has sponsored two India focused private equity funds through its asset management arm, Evolvence Capital Limited.

In 2006, the Group laid the foundation of its education platform to meet the rising demand for quality education in the GCC region. The Group’s first school, Repton School Dubai, admitted its first pupils in 2007 and is now regarded as the premier private school with a boarding program in the Middle East. In order to build on Repton School Dubai’s success and its management team’s proven industry expertise, Evolvence Knowledge Investments Limited (EKI) was formed in 2011 to develop and grow the Group’s education platform.

The Group set up its retail platform with the launch of Ginza Fashion LLC in 2007 in order to tap into underserved segments of the lucrative medium to high end fashion retail market in the GCC. Ginza Fashion has managed to succeed in spite of difficult market conditions, and grown both its brand portfolio and number of stores. The Group has recently expanded its retail offering to include food and beverage based on propriety research which revealed gaps in the market for a number of cuisines.

The Evolvence Group seeks emerging trends, identifies top performing investment opportunities and develops products that capitalise on these opportunities in order to achieve superior, non-correlated returns for its investors and shareholders.

Evolvence Knowledge Investments is the education platform of the Evolvence Group. EKI focuses on establishing private schools offering a variety of curricula in the GCC region. By doing so, it aims to capitalise on the strong demand for high quality, internationally recognised curricula in these underpenetrated education markets which are characterised by a growing young local and expatriate population. In 2006, EKI partnered with Repton School of the United Kingdom, a prestigious Derbyshire-based independent school with more than 450 years of education excellence, to offer British independent school curriculum education in Repton schools across the GCC region. The first school to be launched under this partnership was Repton School in Dubai which opened its doors in the academic year 2007-08. EKI is the majority shareholder in Repton School. Repton UK provides guidance to Repton School board of governors through its direct representation on the board and assists Repton School’s senior management in setting up the curriculum and quality control.

Evolvence Knowledge Investments intends to capitalise on Repton School’s success and its management team’s proven and extensive industry expertise by expanding its Repton schools network in the GCC with immediate growth plans in the UAE and Qatar. Concurrently, EKI is actively seeking new partnerships with schools in Europe, North America and Asia to diversify its offering. EKI has also launched its own early learning platform under the brand name “Dovecote” and has bought a majority stake in Abu Dhabi’s oldest nursery “Humpty Dumpty” to complement its schools portfolio. Foremarke School, partner school of Repton UK’s preparatory school, Foremarke Hall, opened in Dubai in September 2013. Repton School Abu Dhabi also opened its doors in September 2013.