ACUMEN FUND INC
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Mission Statement
Acumen raises charitable donations to invest in companies, leaders, and ideas that are changing the way the world tackles poverty.
About This Cause
INVESTING IN COMPANIES Acumen raises charitable donations to invest patient capital in business models that deliver critical goods and services to the world’s poor. Since 2001, Acumen has improved the lives of millions by investing in companies providing agricultural inputs, quality education, clean energy, healthcare services, formal housing, safe drinking water, and sanitation services to low-income customers in India, Pakistan, East Africa, West Africa, and Latin America. Patient Capital We define patient capital as a debt or equity investment in an early-stage social enterprise. Our aim is not to seek high returns, but to bridge the efficiency and scale of market-based approaches and the social impact of pure philanthropy. Characteristics of patient capital include a high risk tolerance, a payback of investment capital over the long-term, the flexibility and management support needed to scale, and an unwavering goal of maximizing social impact. Examples of patient capital include our investment in Ziqitza Healthcare Limited, a company providing quality, affordable ambulance services in India. When we first invested they had just nine ambulances. Now they have 800 ambulances serving over two million customers. Our investment in WaterHealth International helped to build an affordable water industry in India and Ghana creating access for 500,000+ customers and our investment in d.light designhas empowered over 20 million people worldwide through their solar lighting products. Acumen targets its funding toward the “Pioneer Gap”, a critical funding gap that exists when a company grows beyond the need for grant capital but is not yet ready for investor capital. This is a funding niche not being addressed by most impact investors—who invest at later stages—making Acumen’s philanthropy-backed patient capital well suited to provide the growth capital companies need to scale their operations and impact over time. Recycling Returns We aim to see financial returns from our investments in the form of a payback or exit in roughly 7–10 years and, as a non-profit, all returns are recycled back into Acumen to make new investments in business models that serve the poor. This approach maximizes the impact of our Partners’ philanthropic donations and gives our companies time to iterate and really get their models right. INVESTING IN IDEAS Acumen is committed to the spread of ideas that can change how the world tackles poverty through research, impact Measurement, and strategic communications.As an early investor, Acumen has played a key role in helping to shape the impact investment community including being a co-developer of the Impact Reporting & Investment Standards (IRIS); helping found the Aspen Network for Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE) and the Global Impact Investment Network (GIIN); and—in partnership with Google and Salesforce—creating PULSE, a software platform for metrics collection. We invest in the spread of ideas through research work—Blueprint to Scale, a report identifying the funding gap faced by social enterprises, has become a transformative report in the sector—and additional research is underway to study the application of mobile technology to data collection, as well as the impact of improved seed varieties on yield and income using a randomized control trial. INVESTING IN LEADERS Acumen is building a global community of leaders with the skills to solve the world’s most challenging problems through our three leadership programs: Global Fellows Founded in 2006, a one-year full-time program for 10–12 early-career leaders with two months of training followed by a 9-month field placement with an Acumen investee where Fellows work on critical business issues. Regional Fellows Founded in 2011, a one-year executive MBA-style leadership training program in East Africa, Pakistan, and India where 20 local leaders driving social change projects meet for four Training Seminars and two Collaborative Projects throughout the year. +Acumen Founded in 2009 as a way for emerging leaders to “add” Acumen to their lives, it includes +Acumen Chapters—volunteer-led groups learning about and sharing Acumen’s model in their communities—and the +Acumen Leadership Academy —online courses equipping participants with tools to create social change.