David Kezerashvili

With over 25 years of senior leadership and executive experience, David’s investment interests span a range of sectors including real estate, technology, and media.

Through his private investment office, David’s extensive real estate investment portfolio covers the UK, Europe and Central Asia, including Cyprus and Ukraine. As an early-stage investor in technology start-ups, David has successfully led and been involved in a number of ventures, delivering both growth capital and expertise in emerging markets. He is the founder and majority shareholder of Georgian media company Formula TV, established in 2019.

In 2008, David Kezerashvili founded Universal Capital Group (UCG) and Future Products Company (FPC), both investment holding companies focused on the management of small and medium-sized businesses in Georgia and the Caucasus region. With a core focus on logistics, transport, commodities in Georgia and the Caucasus region, both groups held interests in oil products transportation and terminal operations in Georgia and were active in offering logistical services; the delivery of jet fuel to NATO forces in Afghanistan; petrol distribution chains in Georgia; and a minority interest in a raw sugar processing consortium. 

Under David’s leadership, UPC and FPC negotiated and executed a number of successful deals and ventures in the region, enabled by his operational experience and deep expertise of business in Georgia and neighbouring countries. In 2009, David secured a contract with Poti Oil Products Terminal – the largest refined petroleum terminal on the Georgian coast – for the transportation of light oil products through the East-West Transcaucasia corridor to large multinational oil traders and end users in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. Subsequently, FPC went on to lease 100 per cent storage capacity at the Terminal before acquiring a 75% equity stake from its owners. By the end of 2012, FPC Group was transporting over 1.2 million tonnes of petroleum products throughout the region.

During this time, David negotiated a major deal at FPC for the transportation of jet fuel for NATO forces in Afghanistan, supplying over 35,000 tonnes of jet fuel per month through the Poti Oil Products Terminal. In 2011, David led a consortium of investors on the acquisition of several petrol distribution chains in Georgia and consolidated them all into one group, creating the largest retail petrol chain in Georgia at the time.

In 2012, David was forced to give up all of his interests in FPC Group and other businesses in Georgia, exiting the Georgian business community entirely. Since then, David has spent the last decade and more actively investing in a diverse range of real estate and property ventures across the UK and Europe, as well as investing in early-stage technology companies. He owns a number of entities in multiple jurisdictions. In 2019, David founded Formula, the leading opposition TV channel in Georgia, of which he is the majority shareholder, and this remains his only commercial interest in the country.

David Kezerashvili is a founding member of the reformist United National Movement (UNM), the political party which came to power after the 2003 ‘Rose Revolution’. The nonviolent uprising was led by Mikheil Saakashvili, who was President of Georgia for two consecutive terms until 2013, and was an early mentor to David. 

David’s political career commenced in the Georgian Justice Ministry, where he became assistant to Mikheil Saakashvili, then the Minister for Justice in 2001. In 2004, after the UNM came to power, David was appointed Chief of Financial Police. 

In 2006, David was appointed as Minister of Defence within the Saakashvili government, serving until December 2008. As Minister, he led the process of restricting the Ministry and spearheaded major reforms, including the modernisation of the Georgia Army and its infrastructure, brining it in line with NATO standards. David also conducted regular meetings with his ministerial counterparts in NATO and negotiated a number of agreements on Georgia’s role in the peacekeeping missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. Under his leadership, Georgia became the first per capita contributor to the Euro-Atlantic security among non-member states, establishing itself as a reliable partner in the region for NATO and the US.         

David has no intention to re-enter politics, and for the past 15 years has focused on his business interests and had no role in Georgian public life.      

David supports a number of philanthropic initiatives in Georgia, Ukraine, Israel and elsewhere, donating over $5 million in the last decade to multiple global causes. Since 2021, he has supported several causes in Georgia, including funding the renovation of critical local facilities such as libraries, stadiums, schools and other education projects in remote villages in the northern region of Georgia. He is a supporter of media in all its forms, contributing to book publishing initiatives and donating funds to a range of media organisations. He continues to support philanthropic projects in his homeland, including support for Ukrainian refugees who fled to Georgia.

David is a prominent supporter and donor to Ukraine’s war effort. Since the start of the war in Ukraine in February 2022, David has donated substantial subs to emergency efforts for the Ukrainian people and humanitarian needs in Ukraine. These include a donation to Borodianka Central District Hospital. David Kezerashvili has been actively contributing to the armed forces in Ukraine, including in the shipment of material from the USA. His total financial contribution since the eruption of the war in Ukraine amounts to over $2.4 million.

David is a strong advocate of business figures giving back to the communities in which they operate and, as such, is a regular donor to the Red Cross in Cyprus. David also takes a keen philanthropic interest in the welfare of soldiers and their families and has given substantially to the United Israel Appeal.

David lives with his family in London. He studied law and international relations at Tbilisi State University.