From Investec to AI-Driven Entrepreneurship
Malloron Nair is the co-founder of Disraptor, a venture that helps African start-ups scale and become AI-ready by strengthening their technical foundations and accelerating their go-to-market strategies. Passionate about innovation and impact-driven entrepreneurship, he works at the intersection of venture capital, corporate partnerships and emerging technology. Nair spent 2014 to 2019 at Investec, where he progressed through several roles and developed the entrepreneurial mindset that would later lead him to start his own business.
1. Please unpack your current role and the company you work for.
I’m the co-founder at Disraptor. Essentially, we help start-ups across Africa scale and go to market faster. We do this by helping them achieve engineering excellence.
Very often, what blocks a start-up from landing venture capital funding or securing a large corporate deal is a technical gap. My team steps into those start-ups and fills those gaps. Once those barriers are removed, it becomes much easier for them to raise capital or partner with large corporates. That work is funded by both corporate and public sector institutions.
Our work is very AI-driven. What we’re seeing across South Africa and Africa as a whole is that start-ups, particularly, are not ready for AI. About 80% of the work actually goes into getting a start-up’s data and infrastructure ready for AI, and only about 20% goes into the AI itself.
So, we focus on filling that 80% gap and helping start-ups become AI-ready. If you look at the venture capital landscape, a lot of investments are happening in AI across Africa, but there aren’t enough AI start-ups. We help build that pipeline.
At the same time, if you look at corporate AI adoption across Africa, it’s only around 2%. Corporates are looking for partnerships with start-ups that can help them drive AI adoption much faster, and we help facilitate those relationships.
2. What do you like most about this stage of your career?
For me, it’s the ability to merge my passion and purpose with profits.
For a long time, I had this perception that creating impact had to be philanthropic and not profit-driven. But I’ve realised that impact actually needs to be bi-directional. If you want to create impact in our country, it needs to be sustainable.
What’s really fulfilling for me is helping these start-ups reach a stage where they can scale globally. One successful start-up can affect so many lives. We also work with previously disadvantaged founders, helping them get onto the global stage and secure partnerships with corporates.
The innovation work we get to do is exciting. We’re nimble, we’re constantly adapting, and we always have to stay up to date with what’s happening in the market. So, we get to do interesting work, we get to have fun, we get to build a profitable business, and we get to make a difference.
People sometimes think entrepreneurship gives you a very free lifestyle where you can take leave whenever you want, but that’s not the case. In reality, you often work harder than you would in corporate. But it’s very fulfilling.
3. Looking back, what have been two or three defining milestones in your career journey?
A lot of my defining milestones actually happened at Investec. The reason I joined Investec in the first place was because of its entrepreneurial spirit — that idea of being able to start your own business within the business. That mindset really resonated with me.
In fact, it was the only company I wanted to join. It took me nine months of interviews to actually land the job. I wasn’t interested in other opportunities. So, one of the biggest milestones for me was getting that job and moving from KZN to Gauteng to join Investec.
Another defining milestone was the opportunity to explore different roles within the organisation. At Investec, if you performed well in your current role, you were given the freedom to explore and understand other parts of the business. That exposure gave me insight into banking as a whole and into how the broader economy works. It also helped me understand where I wanted to go next. I always knew entrepreneurship was my end goal — I just didn’t yet know what the business would be.
Another milestone was moving into a more data and analytics-driven role, which ultimately influenced my decision to start my own business — a business that is itself very data-driven. I’ve drawn heavily on the networks and institutional knowledge I gained at Investec in building what I do today.
4. You were with Investec between 2014 and 2019. How would you describe your time there?
It was an incredibly formative period for me.
I initially joined in Shared Services and Operations within Private Bank Finance. In that role, I worked closely with the operational side of the bank — transactional processes, lending, credit and the broader private banking offerings — essentially supporting the finance operations behind the scenes. It gave me valuable insight into how the bank functions, from what happens behind the card and IT systems to the financial infrastructure that supports it all. In 2017, I progressed into a group role as a quantitative analyst. This role involved modelling expected credit losses across the bank’s divisions under different macroeconomic conditions. It meant working closely with the Group Economics team and gaining a deeper understanding of how developments in the global economy affect the bank. That shift took me from purely internal banking operations to analysing how macroeconomic trends influence the bank’s projected risk and potential losses, which was an important step in my career progression.
Investec is an organisation that genuinely encourages people to think entrepreneurially and take ownership. There’s a strong sense that if you can add value and go above and beyond your role, you’re encouraged to do so.
For me, it was an environment that really helped shape the way I think about business and leadership.
5. How did your time and experience at Investec influence what you did after?
I think there was a lot of character building in my first role. I would attribute much of that to my two managers at the time. Coming in during my early 20s, I had to learn how to develop a thick skin and how not to take things personally. That experience really helped shape my mindset, and I was ultimately rewarded for that growth. The role gave me a strong understanding of the operational side of the business.
Moving from that position into the quantitative analyst role was a massive change. It was a significant shift, particularly in terms of responsibility. Initially, there was a bit of a struggle in picking up some of the mathematical concepts that I had only encountered at university. What I really appreciated, though, was being given the time and space to grow into the role and develop those skills.
I also remember a conversation with a manager that helped me realize what my strengths were, and I guess in that discovery process, I learned that I needed to follow my heart. And the truth was, I joined the corporate to one day start my business, and I felt like this corporate really put my well-being first, with regards my goals and motivations. That's what led me to start my business. And of course, getting a lot of those skills and networks from Investec is what enabled me to start Disraptor.
6. Do you think it's fair to say that your time at Investec helped you get to know and understand yourself, your strengths and weaknesses better, and that then provided the foundation or the platform for you to ultimately set up Disraptor?
Absolutely. It was a journey of finding myself through Investec. They shaped who I am today. They taught me about entrepreneurial spirit and how to how to manage my time correctly and get those qualities that I needed. You know, the whole notion of “breaking china” for a client and putting a client first without sacrificing the well-being of your own people.
7. Was there a key moment or particular challenge at Investec — or beyond — that significantly shaped you as a leader?
A defining moment was a conversation I had with a manager during a time when I was facing challenges in my role as a quantitative analyst. I was really thriving in the economic modelling aspect — understanding what was happening in the global economy and how it affected the bank — but I was struggling with the mathematical modelling, which was entirely new to me. I found myself focusing on what I felt I was failing at, and that started to affect my confidence, while I discounted the areas where I was actually performing well. At that point, I began to feel that perhaps I needed to move into a different role, although I was initially hesitant to voice that. When I eventually shared this with my manager, she helped me think through what the right career decision might be. I then spent about six months exploring other potential roles within Investec. That process became a defining moment because I felt I had exhausted my options, and it was then that I realised I needed to take a leap of faith. The career-changing decision I made was to take a significant risk by cashing out my provident fund and using that capital to start my business. Investec was incredibly supportive during that time — they even gave me a boardroom table, chairs and a laptop to help me get started! I set everything up in my garage to create the feeling of a proper office, and that was really the beginning of my entrepreneurial journey.
8. What specific skills, values or relationships developed at Investec continue to influence how you lead today?
Starting out in Shared Services and Operations gave me a strong understanding of how a business is run from an operational standpoint, which has helped me immensely in building and managing my own business. Even though I struggled with the mathematical modelling aspects of my later role, that experience exposed me to a gap in the market and highlighted a niche skill set that is still scarce in this country. The economic modelling work also gave me insight into what is happening in South Africa and across Africa more broadly, which helped me identify opportunities and take a more calculated risk when starting my business. Beyond the technical skills, the support, care and compassion that I experienced at Investec had a lasting impact on me. It showed me the kind of culture I wanted to build, and I try to embody those same values with my own team today.
9. What advice would you give ambitious professionals who want to build a meaningful and successful career?
My advice would be not to chase the shiny or glamorous elements of being in a corporate environment. Instead, stay true to who you are and take the time to figure out what that really means for you, and then follow that path. For many people, that path may well be building a long and successful career within an organisation like Investec. But the moment you truly understand your calling and your purpose, you become far more effective and fulfilled in what you do. It’s also important to maintain honesty and integrity. I remember being scared to say that I wanted to leave and start my own business, but looking back, that honesty was important. While many people see vulnerability as a sign of weakness, I believe it is actually a sign of strength. When you combine that with grit and determination, it can take you a very long way.
10. What are your thoughts on the Investec Alumni platform and are you using it in a business capacity?
I think it’s a great initiative. From my experience, everyone who leaves Investec tends to leave on a good note — I can certainly attest to that — and people genuinely want to continue supporting one another. Whether you’re still in corporate and looking for advice on progressing into a new role, or you’ve started your own business like I have and need access to the right networks and introductions in the industry, that support is incredibly valuable. Bringing all of these individuals together on one platform is very powerful. By being able to see what people’s current roles are and what they’ve done previously, it becomes much easier to identify opportunities to connect, even with people you may not know personally. From my perspective, many people who leave Investec still feel a strong connection to the organisation and would often welcome the opportunity to return, and I think the platform helps create that possibility as well.