About Differential
We believe that AI will revolutionise the investment industry; not by replacing humans, but by enabling better and faster decision making. Using the insights derived from our proprietary datasets and online machine learning algorithms, our investment analysts explore new investment opportunities and update their existing views with the latest information. This allows us to achieve optimal portfolio returns while controlling for downside risk.
Our Purpose
At Differential Capital, we aim to improve the lives of our clients and all South Africans through superior asset management. We do this by creating wealth for our clients, investing in companies that care for society and the environment, and engaging constructively with those that do not.
Our Core Values
Activism
We believe in investment for a greater good. We want to invest in a way that improves society, and we actively seek out opportunities to add value to our clients, the economy and the country.
Accountability
We own our failures as much as our successes. There’s a direct link between our success and the fact that each team member has clear accountabilities and responsibilities.
Performance
We’re constantly looking for innovative ways to use modern technology in our investments to generate the best returns. That way, we give our clients and our communities a better future.
Growth Mindset
Having started managing client capital in the heat of the Covid-19 market crash, we’ve learned the value of adopting a growth mindset, embracing challenges and learning from our mistakes. Today, this mindset is a cornerstone of our business.
A Culture Of Learning
We don’t just encourage continuous self-development and learning: we facilitate it. We believe deep work creates higher-level thinking, and we’re constantly questioning and improving.
Our Investment Philosophy
Our investment philosophy is grounded in the notion that the market is a discounting machine: an asset's price is the present value of its expected future cash flows. We believe that asymmetric access to information and differences in risk tolerance, style preference and mandate restrictions create recurring and predictable patterns in how investors incorporate new information into these expectations. By sourcing our own datasets and using machine learning to generate novel insights, we have positioned ourselves strategically to exploit these inefficiencies in the market.
Our Investment Process
- 1 Screening
We use data science and AI algorithms to forecast macroeconomic scenarios and identify investment opportunities that are likely to perform well in these environments.
- 2Activism
We’re responsible investors first and foremost. We engage with management teams around ESG issues to help ensure sustainable returns and positive impacts on society.
- 3Deep Dive
Supported by insights and machine learning models, our investment analysts build detailed fundamental models for the companies that screen favourably.
- 4Portfolio Construction
We use our proprietary algorithms to optimise the portfolio to achieve the desired balance of risk and potential return, with a bias towards high quality, well-run companies.