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Nikhil Patel is a UK-based businessman and investor who majorly works in the financial service and TMT industries. Nikhil has more than 18 years of global experience in the Technology, Media & Entertainment, and Telecommunications (TMT) industry across Africa, Europe, Asia, and the United States of America. He is a certified transformational life coach and a Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) practitioner.
Wiki/Biography
Nikhil N. Patel was born in 1979 (age 44 years; as of 2023) in London, United Kingdom. He spent his initial years with his grandparents in Wales, United Kingdom. He grew up in London. Nikhil attended a school in Crawley, England. He pursued a Bachelor of Science (Hons.) in Business Information Systems and Laws (1997-2000) at Middlesex University London, United Kingdom. In association with the African mobile devices brand ‘mi-Fone,’ he studied competitive strategy at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (2013) in Germany, innovation and commercialisation at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2014) in the United States, operations management at Kellogg School of Management (2015) in Evanston, Illinois, the United States, supply chain management at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), successful negotiation: essential strategies and skills at the University of Michigan, and age of globalization at the University of Texas at Austin.
Physical Appearance
Height (approx.): 5′ 9″
Weight (approx.): 70 kg
Hair Colour: Salt & Pepper
Eye Colour: Brown
Body Measurements (approx.): Chest: 42 inches, Waist: 30 inches, Biceps: 14 inches
Tattoos
He has multiple tattoos on his body.
Nikhil Patel while flaunting his tattoos
After his second marriage with Dalljiet Kaur, both got a matching clapperboard tattoo inked on their left legs.
Dalljiet Kaur and Nikhil Patel’s tattoo
Family
Parents & Siblings
His parents fled to the United Kingdom from East Africa during the 1972 invasion of Uganda as refugees.
Nikhil Patel with his father
Nikhil has a younger sister named Kavita.
Wife & Children
Nikhil Patel has two daughters, Aariyana Patel and Aanika Patel, with his first wife, Julie.
Nikhil Patel with his daughters, Aariyana Patel (left) and Aanika Patel (right)
On 18 March 2023, he got married to Dalljiet Kaur, an Indian actress; this was his second marriage.
Dalljiet Kaur and Nikhil Patel’s wedding photo
In February 2024, rumours about their separation started when Dalljiet removed her pictures with Nikhil and his surname from her social media profile. Later, her team stated that she had returned to India for her parents’ surgeries and would not discuss the rumours.
Relationships/Affairs
Nikhil Patel dated Dalljiet Kaur, an Indian television actor, for almost a year before getting engaged to her in Nepal on 3 January 2023.
Nikhil Patel and Dalljiet Kaur
Dalljiet Kaur talked about her relationship with Nikhil Patel in an interview and revealed that they met at a friend’s party in Dubai, where they talked about their children from their first marriages and eventually felt connected. Dalljiet said,
I met Nick at a friend’s party in Dubai last year. I only spoke about my son, and he was talking about his two daughters, 13-year-old Aariyana and eight-year-old Aanika. He wore blue nail polish on his toes, and when I asked him about it, he replied, ‘I am a proud dad of two girls.’ Romance wasn’t in the air back then; it was just two single parents chatting. Love happened with time. It was our love for our children that connected us. While Anika lives with her mother in the US, Aariyana will live with us.”
Career
Razorfish
After graduating from Middlesex University London, United Kingdom, Nikhil moved to Frankfurt, Germany, where he joined ‘Razorfish,’ a digital agency, and worked as a Mobile Technology Consultant for almost a year. He worked on projects for multinational companies including ‘Siemens,’ an automation company, ‘Deutsche Bank,’ an investment banking company, and ‘Audi,’ an automotive manufacturer of luxury vehicles, and researched how they would benefit by integrating mobile technologies within their current user interfaces.
Capari Group Inc.
In 2001, Nikhil Patel moved to the United States of America and joined Capari Group Inc., an Italian company that deals in the beverage industry, in New York. He worked as the Director of Strategy and Development and was later promoted to the designation of Managing Partner. He was engaged in advising and negotiating deals with renowned hospitality groups including IHG, Choice Hotels International, Inc., and Best Western. Nikhil Patel worked with Capari Group for almost seven years during which he travelled approximately 5-10 days domestically monthly.
Gensource RX LLC
In 2009, Nikhil joined ‘Gensource RX LLC,’ a pharmaceutical company, and worked as the Director of Business Development. He was in charge of management accounts, strategic partnerships, and large account negotiations with C-level executives and stakeholders. He worked with the company for nearly 2 years.
mi-Fone
In 2011, he moved to Johannesburg, Africa, where he joined ‘mi-Fone,’ the first African mobile devices brand, and worked as the Chief Operating Officer for three years. In May 2015, he was promoted to the designation of Managing Director in the company and was instructed by the board of directors to relocate to Nairobi, Kenya to set up a new African headquarter and expand operations and strategic direction throughout more than 20 countries in the east, central and SADC regions of Africa. Nikhil served as the Managing Director of the company for almost a year.
Oju Africa
In 2012, Nikhil co- founded ‘Oju Africa,’ the world’s first Afro emoticons that received worldwide acclaim from the tech and media world after launching on the Google App store. He joined the company in Johannesburg Area, South Africa in October 2012 and worked till May 2015.
iROKO Partners
Nikhil later moved to China, where he learned about the mobile phone’s eco-system and manufacturing system after which he moved to Mauritius in 2013. In September 2016, he joined ‘iROKO Partners,’ one of the world’s largest African entertainment companies, as the Chief Commercial Officer in London, United Kingdom. He worked for the company till August 2019.
Watu
In September 2019, Nikhil joined ‘Watu,’ a financial institution in Mombasa, Kenya, as the Chief Growth Officer.
Sherpa Ventures
In November 2020, Nikhil Patel partnered with ‘Sherpa Ventures,’ a venture firm that invests in early-stage tech and tech-enabled startups in Africa.
ARC Ride
Nikhil Patel became a board member at ‘ARC Ride,’ a manufacturer of electric vehicles in Nairobi, Kenya, in July 2022.
Facts/Trivia
- He is a hyperpolyglot and can speak many languages including Spanish, German, French, English, Gujarati, and Hindi.
- Nikhil loves travelling and often shares his pictures from international trips on social media.
- He enjoys consuming alcohol occasionally.
Nikhil Patel’s Instagram post in which he shared glasses full of Belgian Blonde beer
- Nikhil Patel loves playing football. In 1987, he developed a fan crush on Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham or Spurs, which is a professional football club based in Tottenham, London, England.
- Nikhil actively contributes to the welfare of society. He is associated with a non-profit organisation named ‘ROCK: Reaching Out with Compassion in Kibera,’ where children from the Kibera slums in Nairobi are tutored.
Nikhil Patel (left), along with a team member of the company Uber (right), at the R. O. C. K. organisation
- He loves sharing his experiences with people and has spoken at various prestigious institutions including Yale School of Management, Sciences Po, a selective research university in Paris, and Afrobytes Paris. Nikhil has given speeches at various events such as Africa Tech Summit and TMT World Congress, an event where the leading industry, finance, and advisory executives gather in London.
Nikhil Patel while delivering a speech about ‘Rethinking the Post-Purchase Experience’ at the Retail World Africa Summit in 2015
- On his official website, Nikhil mentioned that when he was 16 years old, he got an opportunity to deliver a speech about growing up in a multicultural family in the United Kingdom in front of a gathering of around 1500 people including British MPs. He wrote,
I had the honour of speaking in front of over 1,500 peers & British MPs about being raised in a multi-cultural family in the UK as a “BrIndian” or “BrAsian”.”
- Nikhil, on his official website, mentioned some of his major life incidents, which included going to a jail cell in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a country in Central Africa, crossing land borders to Liberia illegally, getting stuck in Sierra Leone during the Covid era, and losing one of his family members in the 2019 DusitD2 complex attack in Nairobi, Kenya.
- He is a fitness enthusiast and wakes up at 5:02 am in the morning to hit the gym. In 2019, Nikhil underwent a massive physical transformation, which he revealed through a post on Instagram. He mentioned that on 1 January 2019, he weighed 175lbs (79kg) at over 35% body fat and was pre-diabetic and had high cholesterol. Nikhil added that he decided to become fit before a shoot, which was supposed to be done in August 2019; the date of the shoot was later pushed to October 2019. He picked Adam Hayley, a fitness trainer, and worked hard on his fitness. When the day of the shoot arrived, Nikhil, along with his trainer Adam Hayley, took the 8 am train to London on a cold and rainy morning and completed the shoot with a photographer named Craig Williams.
Nikhil Patel’s Instagram post about his fitness journey