I love Nepal, that's why I invest here

British citizen Tim Gocher is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of 'Dolma Impact Fund'. After working as an investment banker for a long time, Gochar launched the Dolma Impact Fund as Nepal's first private equity and venture capital (PEVC) fund in 2014. In a decade of establishment, Gochar has raised billions of rupees in investment in Nepal through the Dolma Impact Fund and has succeeded in creating thousands of jobs. Dolma has invested 108 million US dollars (more than 14.5 billion rupees).

Since last year, private equity firms in Nepal have started getting licenses from Nepal Securities Board (SEBON). There are currently 13 registrations in Sebon. Foreign PEVCs do not need to be registered with SEBON. Sevenn including PEVC Dolma are registered abroad and working in Nepal.

Gochar is the "pioneer" of Nepal's PEVC industry. Dolma Impact Fund has celebrated its 10th anniversary since it started working in Nepal.

Sushil Bhattarai and Prasoon Sangraula had a conversation with CEO Gochar for Online News, focusing on the initial story of the fund, the problems of investing in Nepal, the fund's strategy, and future plans:

You are a British citizen with a long career in investment banking internationally. You may have had good opportunities in international financial hubs, but why and how did you think of making Nepal your workplace?

In my opinion, money is an important issue. You all need to earn enough money to support your family and live a good life. However, money is not everything. Yes, at one point in my life, I worked for an American billionaire. Apart from that, most of the time I worked in large financial institutions located in financial hubs like London, New York, and Singapore.

However, I came to know about Nepal through my wife. And immediately I established a non-governmental organization 'Dolma Foundation'. This is the year 2003. At that time, the Maoist armed conflict was at its peak in Nepal. At that time, I did not think about any private sector investment in Nepal because the situation here was not reliable. Still, I loved Nepal.

At the same time, other impact funds were being started in some rural areas of India, Africa, and the managers of those funds were known to me. Inspired by that, I decided to open PEVC in Nepal. To be honest, it is a kind of passion. And, to say more, this is more important than money.

When you opened a PEVC firm in Nepal, at that time there was not much information about PEVC here. Wasn't it difficult for you?

Sir, done. First, I think we are the unluckiest fund in the world. But not because of Nepal. Still we started, we started raising money. We made our first investment in Nepal 10 years ago in September 2014.

During the first seven months of the establishment of the Dolma Impact Fund, people could not understand us. They used to ask us questions like 'Do you give subsidy?', 'Are you a bank?' People were not so receptive to our concept of equal distribution of equity. Because this was the first concept in Nepal. Therefore, we had to create a lot of education and awareness about this concept. Till then we had not invested in any project. All investments have a fixed lifespan, until the project is invested, it is natural for investors to panic.

Then suddenly there was a blockade in Nepal. Due to the devastating earthquake that preceded the blockade, no one dared to make any kind of investment in Nepal because at that time it was a matter of life and death. However, we invested for the first time in a hydroelectric project after 16 months of establishment.

10 years ago and now, how has the PEVC sector changed in Nepal?

It has undergone a complete transformation. Our experience of working with local private equity funds here has been very positive. Everyone comes with their own knowledge and experience in this field and we all take risks together. By doing this, sometimes one wins and sometimes the other wins. This is venture capital private equity. However, this is not only due to lack of knowledge and local capital. It makes me feel good to think that we played some part in encouraging the ecosystem.