Meet Pedri Reyneke, CEO and Fund Manager at Findotec

Investment management is often presented as a contest of conviction, where confidence and compelling narratives can matter as much as evidence. Pedri Reyneke takes a different view, arguing that sound investing begins with discipline, transparency and a willingness to challenge accepted thinking. In this conversation, he reflects on the experiences that shaped his approach to building a more objective and accessible investment business

How did you get involved in the finance industry?

I grew up in the advice environment. My father was an Independent Financial Adviser (IFA), so I saw from a young age how proper financial planning changes lives. My own path really started when I became a Business Development Consultant. That was my school of hard knocks. I spent my days watching how hundreds of different advisers operated. I saw what worked, but more importantly, I saw what was broken. I realised that finance is a space where everyone thinks they are a guru. 

What led you to start your own company?

When I became an IFA myself, I followed the traditional path by attending fund manager presentations and training. But I noticed a troubling trend: investing was becoming a marketing game, not a client-centred one. Institutions were selling products based on stories, not the bottom line. I wanted to get back to the truth, which led me to the maths, specifically the bell curve and momentum strategies. I wanted a system that was objective.

It was not easy. When we started building our own models, the traditional investment world didn’t like our outlook. We were essentially blocked by the old guard. Fortunately, we found a like-minded team who saw the value in our fresh approach. They helped us prove that our philosophy was a viable, professional way to manage wealth.

What was your biggest challenge in the early days?

We hit two big hurdles: transparency and cost. Clients could not just Google our models to see how they were performing, and the underlying costs were still too high. We fought for our own Collective Investment Scheme (CIS) licence to fix that. We spent years converting Nobel Prize-winning formulas into a practical system that works on actual funds. We hit a massive roadblock when we realised we were not registered as a Fund of Funds, but that became our biggest opportunity. We pivoted to what I call a Virtual Fund of Funds structure. Through a partnership with Ironclad, we now use regression analysis to look inside the funds, and we buy the underlying assets directly.

How did you solve this?

We cut out the middleman fees. If it is more cost-effective to buy an ETF than a fund manager’s fee-heavy product, we do it. I like to think of us as the Escalator of Funds. We have engineered a way to move our clients in the right direction, with total transparency and the lowest possible friction. It is one of the few virtual Fund of Funds structures in South Africa, and it all started because we refused to accept marketing as a substitute for maths.

What was your first meaningful successful investment?

People usually expect an investment manager to tell a story about a lucky stock pick, but mine is more boring. My first real success was an RA I started with my very first pay cheque. It taught me that discipline and time are far more powerful than being clever. 

What makes a good investment in today’s environment?

People often confuse a busy market with a good environment. For me, a good investment environment is not about everything going up at once; it is about clarity, consistency and a lack of nasty surprises. You need three specific pillars in place:

An anchored inflation target (The 3% factor)
A good environment is one where you are not constantly guessing what your money will be worth tomorrow. The Reserve Bank’s move to anchor inflation at 3% is the single most important factor right now. It provides a north star for the whole economy. When inflation is predictable, businesses can plan, and as an investor, you can finally set a target (like our CPI+5%) with confidence that you are achieving real growth, not simply chasing a moving target.

Structural stability (The lights-on factor)You cannot have a good investment environment if the basic plumbing of the country is not working. We are seeing a much more stable utility and logistics landscape in 2026. When the ports are moving and the electricity supply is consistent, SA Inc. companies can focus on being CEOs and growing their share prices rather than simply surviving the week. That stability creates the momentum that our systems look for.

Cutting costs and keeping it simple
To make this work, we built a system that actively mimics the underlying fund holdings. We bypass the heavy layers of fees you usually see in traditional Fund of Funds and cut costs significantly. We then took this highly sophisticated, institutional-grade engine and packaged it into something simple: our CPI+ range. A client chooses a target, like beating inflation by 5% (CPI+5%), and our system relentlessly manages the risk and the rotation to achieve that real return. It behaves like a savvy investor, so the client doesn’t have to.

Please explain a bit about Findotec’s Quantitative Momentum Strategy

We built our Quantitative Momentum Strategy to be a ruthless, objective board of directors for our clients’ money. Instead of relying on a fund manager’s gut feel or hoping a losing streak will end, we use a strictly rules-based, mathematical system. Think of it as a financial GPS. It actively tracks performance and statistical probability. If an asset is losing momentum, the system doesn’t wait around hoping for a miracle. It automatically course corrects and rotates the capital into what is growing. We remove the human emotion, the panic and the stubbornness from the investment process.