AMC Background

DMZ Partners started on February 2018. The firm was established through a deliberate transition from a family office structure, under which only proprietary capital was managed, to a boutique investment management platform that selectively accepts external client capital. DMZ positions itself explicitly as a boutique portfolio manager, with a singular focus on high-quality businesses and a high bar for both investment selection and client alignment.

The firm’s origins lie in a father–son partnership between Sanjay and Soumil, with the family investment office being actively developed from 2011 onward when Soumil returned to Mumbai from New York to work alongside his father. Prior to co-founding DMZ Partners, Soumil worked at Goldman Sachs in New York within the Banking & Financials team of Global Investment Research, and is a graduate of Duke University with formal training in Economics and Biology. Sanjay brings over three decades of entrepreneurial experience as an operator in the super-abrasives industry, alongside a long-standing track record as a patient, long-term equity investor. Since 2012, he has been fully dedicated to managing the family’s investment activities, with some investments dating back multiple decades.

Investment Philosophy

DMZ Partners follows what it terms the “DMZ Partners Inheritors Strategy,” an approach centred on owning compounding businesses over long periods when purchased at rational prices. The philosophy is anchored in the belief that superior long-term outcomes are achieved not through frequent activity or tactical shifts, but through sustained ownership of high-quality businesses where the economics of compounding are allowed to play out over extended runways. Price discipline is a necessary condition in this framework, as valuation is viewed as the bridge between business quality and realised investor returns.

The firm seeks to identify businesses that meet a defined set of characteristics which collectively increase the probability of durable compounding. These characteristics are divided into universal attributes that apply across geographies and sectors, and India-specific considerations that reflect local market structure, governance realities, and growth dynamics.

Business Quality and Universality

At a foundational level, DMZ focuses on businesses that are inherently understandable, allowing the firm to develop conviction based on clarity of drivers rather than forecasting precision. Competitive advantages are a core requirement, as excess returns on capital over long periods are viewed as essential for meaningful compounding. Alongside this, prudent capital allocation is emphasised, with management decisions on reinvestment, growth, and balance sheet management treated as critical determinants of long-term value creation.

India-Specific Filters and Resilience

Within the Indian context, DMZ places additional emphasis on scalability, reflecting the asymmetric growth potential available to businesses that can successfully expand within a large and under-penetrated market. Resilience to alternative outcomes is another key filter, indicating a preference for business models that can withstand adverse scenarios without permanent capital impairment. Management quality, including the integrity, competence, and long-term orientation of promoters and leadership teams, is treated as a decisive variable given India’s ownership structures and governance dispersion.

Valuation and Long-Term Ownership

Crucially, even high-quality businesses are considered investable only when acquired at prices that allow the effect of compounding profits to manifest meaningfully over time. DMZ does not pursue growth at any price, nor does it frame value purely in terms of statistical cheapness. Instead, valuation is assessed relative to the longevity and quality of compounding that the underlying business can realistically deliver. The end objective of the philosophy is to assemble a portfolio capable of compounding capital at superior rates over very long periods, while minimising avoidable errors through discipline, simplicity, and patience.