Investment bank Capital Alliance Holdings (CAL) is preparing to expand its footprint across fast-growing frontier markets, using digital infrastructure and financial solutions to improve access to capital and wealth generation. Chief Strategist Udeeshan Jonas outlines the firm’s evolution and the IPO which opened in May 2025 to fund its planned growth in South Asia and East Africa.
“We began as a primary dealer focused on government securities. It quickly became clear that the opportunity extended beyond this niche. We set out to build an investment and capital markets ecosystem that could serve a broader range of clients. This expansion led us into stockbroking, investment banking, and asset management,” Jonas said.
Today, CAL is one of Sri Lanka’s top two stockbroking firms. It has facilitated some of the largest equity and debt capital raises in the post-conflict period and currently manages close to Rs250 billion in client assets. In 2021, CAL entered the Bangladesh market. Its ability to scale there has been driven by a data-centric approach and a culture prioritizing innovation. With a nearly $3 billion annual transaction footprint, CAL is now among the country’s most active full-service investment banks.
“Having already listed our treasury arm, Capital Alliance PLC (CALT), in 2021, we now listed the holding company, Capital Alliance Holdings. The IPO was intended to allow investors to participate in our regional strategy as we expand into frontier markets that offer strong structural growth potential,” Jonas explained in an interview with Echelon, the excerpts of which follow:
What’s the vision for the future with the conclusion of the Capital Alliance Holdings IPO?
Our vision is to become the leading investment bank operating across frontier markets. We focus on economies where capital markets are underdeveloped, yet long-term growth potential remains significant. These markets typically offer strong GDP trajectories, favourable demographics, and promising five- to ten-year outlooks. After our expansion into Bangladesh, we plan to enter a third country within the next 12 to 18 months.
This vision also extends to our operations in Sri Lanka. Over the next five years, we aim to expand our footprint to approximately $5 billion.
As we build linkages between our markets, we expect to facilitate capital flows from developed economies into frontier markets. Over time, intra-frontier flows will also increase. We see an opportunity to support a Sri Lankan company entering Bangladesh or a Bangladeshi company looking to access Sri Lanka. That kind of cross-border participation is part of the role we expect to play.
Our IPO was not simply a capital-raising exercise. It marks a strategic milestone, aligning with our 25th year of operations, and provides a platform for institutional and retail investors to participate in the next phase of our regional strategy.
How do you plan to achieve these goals?
We have structured our strategy around three core pillars. The first is regional expansion. We have conducted due diligence across several frontier markets and visited prospective countries to understand their ground realities and prospects.
Our second pillar is digital expansion. We plan to roll out our platform in every market we enter, starting with Bangladesh and our next target. In Sri Lanka, we’ve seen annual retail growth of over 40%. That trajectory encourages us to invest further in information security, add functionality, and broaden access to financial products suitable for retail investors. We aim to make investment products more accessible and intuitive, regardless of geography.
The third pillar involves scaling our balance sheet and proprietary trading book. This includes increasing our allocation across asset classes, expanding broker credit exposure, and entering private equity transactions. We also see an opportunity to introduce new structured financial instruments and engage in illiquid asset classes, where we can operate as a market maker to serve investors better while creating sustainable value over the medium term.
What would be CAL’s next frontier market expansion, and what makes it attractive?
We have identified East Africa as our next focus region, with Kenya as the entry point. Kenya provides access to a $400 billion economy and a broader regional population of approximately 600 million. We see demographic and economic parallels to Sri Lanka a decade ago. In that sense, it’s a market we understand.
The macroeconomic indicators are also supportive. With GDP growth in the 5–5.5% range and relatively low macro volatility, Kenya offers a compelling risk-adjusted return profile. Kenya is also home to a concentration of Development Finance Institutions and multinational activity, and its proximity to the Middle East strengthens capital connectivity. Beyond that, we see potential to assist Sri Lankan and Bangladeshi companies that want to enter East Africa and vice versa.
While the capital markets infrastructure is less developed, that is also part of the opportunity. In some cases, yield premiums in Kenya are four to five times what we see in Sri Lanka. The fundamentals and the yield environment justify our entry.
How does digital innovation support CAL’s ambitions going forward?
Digital innovation remains central to our growth strategy. The CAL Online Platform —launched a few years ago—now serves over 45,000 clients, including 10,000 onboarded within the past year. Our digital framework is built around three interconnected priorities: broadening retail participation, enhancing operational efficiency, and improving investment decision-making through more effective data use.
The rapid adoption of mobile and digital finance in markets such as Bangladesh and Kenya—where mobile banking penetration ranges between 50% and 70%, compared to around 20% in Sri Lanka—offers a clear opportunity to accelerate digital access to investment products. Over the past five years, while our business has expanded 10-fold, our headcount has grown only modestly, from 120 to 170, underscoring the role of technology in enabling scale without a proportional increase in resources. As we grow, we continue to invest in our data capabilities—not only to refine how we understand client behaviour and market dynamics but also to strengthen the quality of our investment decisions and deliver improved outcomes across the markets we serve.