An independent advisory firm specialising in capital structuring, regenerative and impact investment design, and organisational transformation across complex and underserved markets worldwide.
"Finance that moves capital where it is needed most."
About
Dara Strategies is an independent advisory firm. We support investors, funders, and institutions in deploying capital across complex and underserved markets, filling gaps where conventional finance models fall short.
We innovate financial architectures that integrate multiple forms of capital, underpinned by rigorous financial modelling and real-world stress-testing. Our practice spans three domains: capital and finance, regeneration and impact, and transformation and strategy, across sectors including climate, nature, energy, water, agriculture, healthcare, education, and technology.
Our philosophy is simple: what is designed must be financeable, and what is financed must be deliverable. We bring together over 50 years of combined experience, deep technical expertise, and contextual intelligence across multiple regulatory and market environments. We build alongside our clients, from concept through close.
Services
Three practice areas, each requiring the same discipline: deep contextual knowledge, technical rigour, and the ability to hold strategy and execution together. For legal and regulatory advisory, Dara works in close partnership with SCLS Global Advisory.
Architecture of multi-tranche capital stacks combining concessional, development, and commercial instruments. First-loss facilities, revolving credit structures, and impact-linked mechanisms, underpinned by rigorous financial modelling and real-world stress-testing.
Technical support for engagement with development finance institutions, multilaterals, and catalytic capital partners. Proposal design, due diligence preparation, and investment memoranda for institutional investors, family offices, and philanthropies.
Advisory for investors and landholders entering regenerative agriculture, heritage land restoration, and nature-based solutions. Structuring, project development support, and impact architecture for initiatives across Europe and beyond.
Structuring of gender-lens investment vehicles and women-led enterprise funds, including catalytic finance vehicles investing in climate and resilience ventures led by women across frontier and emerging markets.
For mission-driven organisations that need to sharpen their identity, restructure their operating model, or reposition for new capital and partnerships. Operating model design, portfolio reviews, governance redesign, and strategic repositioning.
For NGOs, foundations, and social enterprises seeking to raise catalytic capital, restructure funder relationships, or access impact investment markets. Network spanning institutional capital, philanthropies, and family offices.
Impact architecture, KPI design, portfolio monitoring, and ESG due diligence frameworks aligned with PRI, IFC PS, SFDR, and investor expectations. Net zero programme design and sustainable finance product verification.
Design of governance frameworks, compliance systems, and institutional infrastructure for funds, NGOs, and private sector entities. Risk management integration, regulatory readiness, and Board-level reporting.
Perspectives
Short reflections on capital, land, and institutions. From the practice, not the podium. We write when we have something worth saying.
Our Philosophy
We believe that in the most challenging markets, the quality of the advisory is the investment. Dara Strategies exists to bring the full weight of technical expertise, contextual knowledge, and institutional relationships to clients who cannot afford to learn on the job.
Our name, Dara, draws on Persian associations of possessing or holding fast to the good. For us, it also signals a way of working grounded in rigour, humility, and deep respect for context and place.
We carry no house agenda. Our advice is shaped entirely by our clients' objectives and the realities of the markets in which they operate.
Legal, financial, and institutional expertise in one seat. No coordination cost, no siloed advisory relationships.
Decades of in-market presence, understanding the political economy, regulatory landscape, and human dynamics that determine whether capital moves.
We believe the next frontier of capital is restorative. Every engagement considers not only financial return but ecological and social renewal.
The Team
Dara Strategies operates as a senior-only practice. Every engagement is led and delivered directly by a founding partner. Together, Dara's partners bring over 50 years of combined experience across capital structuring, institutional transformation, sustainability advisory, and cross-border investment. Where a mandate calls for additional depth, we draw on a carefully selected network of specialist partners, always senior and always chosen for fit. There is no delegation to junior staff.
Simona's work sits where capital structure, institutional design, and execution have to function together. She holds that results only hold when the structure is right from the start. Her practice covers capital structuring, regenerative practice, water stewardship, climate, and real-economy assets.
She is also Co-Founder of SCLS Global Advisory, a cross-border legal and institutional advisory firm with deep roots in complex and fragile markets. The two platforms are complementary: SCLS brings legal structure, regulatory intelligence, institutional capacity, and investment intermediation; Dara brings capital architecture, investment strategy, and organisational transformation. Together they cover the full span of what complex mandates actually require.
Carlotta works with organisations where capital allocation, sustainability, and institutional change are all in motion at once. Her focus is on building financial structures that hold up in practice, not just on paper. This takes the form of operating model redesign, catalytic finance structuring, and ESG frameworks designed to be both rigorous and usable.
She has spent twenty years across management consulting, financial services, and mission-driven organisations, building programmes and practices under real resource constraints and demanding institutional environments. She thinks of herself as someone who builds things that last, and who measures success by whether the work still holds.
Strategic Partnership
Dara Strategies and SCLS Global Advisory are distinct platforms built to work together. SCLS brings cross-border legal structure, regulatory intelligence, institutional capacity, and investment intermediation across complex jurisdictions. Dara brings capital architecture, investment strategy, and organisational transformation. On mandates where both dimensions are in play, clients can draw on the full range without managing two separate advisory relationships.
Visit SCLS Global AdvisoryWho We Work With
We work with a small number of clients at any one time: organisations and investors who need a senior, independent partner rather than a managed engagement.
Impact funds, blended finance vehicles, and gender-lens funds requiring capital architecture, investor engagement, and governance design, from first close to full deployment.
Private landholders, family estates, and regenerative agriculture ventures seeking to structure patient capital, attract impact investors, and develop long-term stewardship models.
NGOs, foundations, and social enterprises navigating strategic repositioning, fundraising restructuring, or the transition from programme delivery to capital deployment.
Ministries, development agencies, and multilateral bodies requiring independent advisory on regulatory frameworks, investment structures, and institutional capacity in complex jurisdictions.
Private investors and family offices entering impact, regenerative, or frontier markets for the first time, and need a trusted partner to structure, vet, and navigate the mandate.
Companies at an inflection point, redefining their purpose, restructuring their ESG or impact strategy, or entering new markets where conventional advisory has no track record.
We take on a small number of engagements at any time. If you are working on something that fits, we would like to hear from you.
Contact
Dara Strategies accepts a limited number of advisory mandates to ensure the quality of engagement that complex situations require. We welcome confidential initial conversations on capital structures, strategic repositioning, and complex cross-border mandates. Initial discussions typically begin with a short scoping conversation.