We saw the same problem everywhere. So we built the infrastructure to fix it.
Working across African capital markets, the same pattern kept appearing: strong businesses were underestimated in funding rounds. Missing evaluation infrastructure costs them capital.
Unifi was built to close that gap.
WHY WE EXIST
Missing infrastructure, not weak operations.
Solid businesses struggle to raise capital at speed. The infrastructure that lets investors evaluate them in hours instead of weeks doesn’t exist. Decisions slow down. Risk gets overstated. Capital moves to businesses that are easier to read, not necessarily better to back.
WHAT UNIFI IS
A structured performance system, not a reporting pack.
Unifi sits between how businesses operate and how markets evaluate them. We take fragmented operational and ESG activity and structure it into a consistent, verified credential that investors can reference, procurement teams can act on, and partners can rely on.
THE THINKING BEHIND IT
Most systems assess businesses. We make performance easier to evaluate.
Standard approaches work from the outside in. They apply frameworks, identify gaps, and produce compliance outputs. Useful for audits. Not for decisions.
We work from the inside out.
Example:
A logistics company that optimises routes, reduces fuel consumption, and manages supplier relationships across a complex supply chain is demonstrating cost control, emissions performance, and value chain governance.
Without structure, it shows up as operational narrative.
With structure, it becomes evidence.
The value already exists. The structure is what makes it visible.
BUILT IN THE MARKET, PROVEN IN IT
Selected, deployed, and referenced. Not piloted.
Unifi has been through enterprise-level due diligence at a Tier 1 bank, deployed as infrastructure across an industry body with 80+ members, and cited in the public disclosures of a JSE-listed company.
This is not a client list. It is a track record.
- Standard Bank OneHub — selected after full enterprise due diligence
- Sea Harvest (JSE-listed) — board-level ESG strategy, referenced in listed disclosures
- SkyNet — Diagnostic results published in investor-facing communication
THE PEOPLE BEHIND UNIFI – TEAM
Built by people who understand how capital actually moves.
Giles Douglas — Chairperson
Former Managing Director and Co-Head of Global Advisory at Rothschild & Co South Africa, now part of Absa’s senior dealmaking leadership team. Giles has spent his career at the intersection of capital and business strategy, with deep experience in how businesses are evaluated, funded, and scaled.
Aiden Choles — CEO
Founder of Unifi and ESG strategist focused on turning sustainability into commercial advantage. Aiden works at the intersection of data, sustainability, and business strategy, building the frameworks and technology that help African businesses translate ESG into structured, market-ready credentials.
JG Cowper — Director: Tech and Data
Data systems and analytics specialist with experience across agriculture, finance, healthcare, and supply chains. JG built the platform architecture that turns scattered operational data into a structured, queryable evidence base: the infrastructure that makes the Passport work at scale.
Dan McPherson — Non-Executive Director
Technology investor with a track record of scaling high-growth businesses. Dan focuses on the commercial architecture needed to take structured performance from a product into a market, and ensure the businesses that rely on it can grow with it.
Unifi exists to make strong businesses visible, structured, and investable.
That’s how they get backed.
