In a space often defined by volatility and complexity, Capital Alliance Lanka (CAL) has been helping shape Sri Lanka’s capital markets with a commitment to integrity, innovation, fairness, and teamwork. Guided by a long-standing purpose to unlock prosperity in frontier economies, the firm has become known for translating complex financial systems into accessible solutions, particularly through technology. Today, CAL is leveraging data and expanding its reach across retail segments, digital platforms, and insight-driven products to help more people participate in capital markets. Kanishke Mannakkara, Group Chief Executive of CAL, shares how the brand is evolving with purpose while staying anchored in the values it was built on.
CAL operates in a niche but competitive space. How does the brand distinguish itself beyond technical expertise or deal execution?
What makes CAL stand out is authenticity. Our brand is shaped by our values and purpose. For 25 years, those values have remained consistent: integrity, innovation, fairness, and teamwork.
Integrity means only offering clients what they need. It’s not just about whether we can legally and ethically create and sell a product; it’s about whether that product is something that is right for the client, and which the client genuinely needs. That distinction matters to us, and I believe this sets a higher bar on what integrity means-going beyond being truthful and compliant, to doing the right thing. Innovation stems from the belief that irrelevance is always just a few months away, so we must constantly adapt. It’s a mindset that pushes us to tinker, to break and remake, and to always improve what we offer. Fairness ensures long-term collaboration. Without it, you don’t build teams that last. And teamwork, for us, is about the power of collective intelligence over individual brilliance. We value diversity in thought and experience, and that’s what drives stronger outcomes.
All of this ties into our purpose: using capital markets to unlock prosperity in frontier economies. That’s the lens through which we approach everything—from how we build products to how we treat our people. It’s not some branding exercise our executives came up with at an off-site. This is the foundation CAL was built on.
What steps have you taken to build trust and visibility among retail investors, who may still associate capital markets with volatility and opacity?
Two interesting words: volatility and opacity. One we choose to embrace, the other we work hard to eliminate. Volatility is one of the fascinating things about capital markets. We love this space. We live in it. We believe in it deeply. Volatility, to us, isn’t something to shy away from. It’s a reality of the markets, and we choose to embrace and manage it. We believe risk is something to be understood, managed and priced, not avoided. And when you understand it well enough, you also know when to step back.
Opacity, on the other hand, is a problem. And we treat it like something that needs to be solved. We use technology to make things clearer. We use communication to break things down in a way people understand. Most importantly, we’re driven by a genuine desire to give customers what they truly need, not necessarily what benefits us the most. Opacity often exists to create an advantage at someone else’s expense. But if your goal is to serve your customer well, then you naturally work to remove that fog. That’s what we do: cut through the noise and bring clarity to our clients.
To what extent does CAL view its brand as being tied to institutional strength versus becoming more accessible and relevant to individual investors and small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)?
Our brand is tied to our values and our purpose. That’s where the authenticity comes through. We don’t change our brand offering to suit a particular consumer segment. The brand offering is who we are, and that doesn’t change situationally; it might evolve very slowly, if at all, but that’s it. So the question then becomes: how do different consumer segments benefit from that? I believe these values that stand as our brand attributes are relevant to everyone. But different aspects resonate with different people at different times.
Take innovation, for example. It’s something that helped us historically deliver institutional and high-networth solutions. That’s how our business started. In the early days, we primarily served institutions and high-net-worth clients, building technically robust solutions for people who had the knowledge and skill to unlock their potential. We continue to innovate at that level. But it’s the same desire for innovation that now allows us to tailor those solutions to the retail market and SMEs. The brand attribute hasn’t changed. Our desire to innovate hasn’t changed. What’s changed is how that same drive is applied across different segments, always grounded in the same values.
How has the firm navigated reputational risk, given the sensitivities around capital markets, conflict of interest, and public trust?
This is where process, compliance, risk management, regulatory oversight, and good systems all come together. It’s probably one of the most important areas in our industry, and it’s not unique to us. What’s maybe a little different about CAL is that we’ve never waited to be told to do things to improve compliance. We don’t wait for regulations to catch up before following best practices.
For us, best practices come from our values. We desire to be the best and offer the best to our clients. Often, that means we’re ahead of regulation. And when new rules do come in, we’re already aligned, or it’s easy to adapt because the ethos is already in place. So, how do we ensure we stay compliant in practice?
It all starts with a values-driven mindset. Here, profit is subservient to compliance. Doing the right thing comes first. Second, it’s about people. We attract top talent, not just in client-facing roles, but in support functions, middle office, and the back office. Third, it’s about systems. Having the right tech and data analytics helps us understand both what we’re doing and what’s happening around us. This combination gives us a huge advantage.
What operational changes, whether in talent, technology, or governance, have supported the evolution of CAL from a transactional investment house based in Sri Lanka to a broader financial services brand that spans the region?
The evolution of our brand has always been driven by our purpose: unlocking prosperity in frontier economies through capital markets. These economies are often underserved, with limited access to capital, and developing financial systems. But no country becomes prosperous without functional capital markets, and we want to be part of that transformation.
There are two ways we do this. One is through institutional capacity-building, working with regulators, developing new products, and shaping ecosystems. The other is through distribution, by making capital markets more accessible to individuals and SMEs. Capital markets are infrastructure. They move capital from where it exists to where it is needed. For that system to work, people need access, and the market needs scale.
When I joined CAL, we had around 1,000 recurring clients. Today, that number is closer to 50,000. Despite this growth, I understand our average customer needs better now than I did back then, not because I know them individually, but because we’ve invested in data and analytics. This has helped us recognise patterns, behaviours, and intent across a much broader base. While our product offering has evolved, the mindset behind it hasn’t. Our drive to innovate remains the same, but the way it manifests has changed to reach tens of thousands more people.
How are macroeconomic volatility and capital flow constraints shaping CAL’s strategic priorities, and what role does the brand play in signalling stability during uncertainty?
There are three big themes here. Let me start with the simplest, the volatility of our environment. We’ve been around for 25 years, navigating periods of uncertainty while guiding our customers through them with their wealth intact. During the financial crisis, we still facilitated business transactions. Even when the stock market was shut due to COVID, we operated every day. We’ve shown, through action, how we help our clients and the ecosystem through periods of uncertainty.
Macroeconomic uncertainty is something we spend a lot of time on. It’s our bread and butter. We try to forecast the future and help people act on those insights. We believe 80% of investment returns are driven by macroeconomic factors, like interest rates and inflation. It is our job to get those forecasts right most of the time, allowing us and our clients to outperform and stay in business in the long run.
The most complex of these is capital controls. We believe in the power of capital markets and the free movement of people, goods, and knowledge to create prosperity for everybody. Of course, you still need to have rules. But in our view, they should be effective without being overly restrictive. We engage with regulators and support reform whilst always ensuring compliance. Wherever we operate, we always follow the rules.
What are the firm’s key challenges in scaling its brand across new asset classes, geographies, or digital platforms without diluting credibility?
When it comes to scaling across asset classes, the biggest challenge is regulation. Take real estate, for example. We’d love to move into that space, but while Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) have been introduced, the current regulatory framework has too many restrictions to make it viable. We focus on working with regulators to tweak frameworks to make them work better.
Digital platforms, on the other hand, are easier, and we’ve already made strong progress there. Our brand naturally lends itself to that space. But I still think we’re just scratching the surface. There’s a range of new products and solutions in development, and over the next three to five years, you’ll see CAL’s digital offering expand dramatically.
Geographically, it’s more complex. CAL is still active only in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. If we go to a third country, people won’t know us. Even in Bangladesh, brand awareness is still building. But that’s the challenge every growing brand faces. Unless you’re Coca-Cola, not everyone will know who you are. So our approach is to stay authentic and stick to our strengths: insight, knowledge, and technical competence. It takes time, but it’s real. And that’s what lays the foundation for sustainable, long-term growth.
Looking forward, what is CAL’s vision for its brand within and beyond Sri Lanka?
Our vision is to help frontier economies achieve prosperity through capital markets. Right now, we operate in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, but we are looking to expand beyond that. The goal is to build critical mass across several frontier markets. Once we reach that scale and cut through enough opacity, we believe we can connect these frontier economies to larger global sources of capital. It is like plugging local pipes into the global mains. We want to facilitate that flow and be a part of it.
In Sri Lanka specifically, we have access to more capital. That includes financial capital, human capital, and brand capital. It gives us the ability to do more. One of our key focus areas here is product development. Sri Lanka acts as our laboratory and testing ground, where we create new and innovative financial solutions that can later be scaled internationally. We are continuously thinking about how to design more interesting capital products and payoff structures.
Looking ahead, we also see a big opportunity in using technology to make niche financial products more accessible. By improving how they are distributed and understood, we can bring them to a much wider audience. That too is a core part of our long-term strategy.
Further information about the 100 Most Valuable Brands in Sri Lanka:
Sri Lanka’s Top 100 Most Valuable Brands
Introducing Brand Finance and Sri Lanka’s Most Valuable Brands
Brand Valuation Methodology: Identifying Sri Lanka’s Top 100 Brands