4. Patient Capital for long-term social impact
Traditional venture capital
Maximize financial return
Maximize Patient Capital
Blending social and
financial returns for
long-term social impact
Financial
return 0%
objective
Traditional philanthropy
Maximize social impact
No return
None Maximize
Social impact
objective
5. We focus on access to basic goods &
services
Water & Sanitation Energy
+ Community water and + Low-cost power/light for
sanitation systems off-grid communities
+ Scale through public- + E.g.
private partnerships solar, biomass, small-
scale hydropower
Housing Agriculture
+ Low-cost housing for
+ Increase productivity of
former slum dwellers
smallholder farmers
+ Focus on building
+ E.g. drip
community and flexible
irrigation, seeds, fertilize
financing products.
rs and artificial
insemination
Health Education
+ Specialized secondary + Sustainable, low-cost
care services, e.g. private education and
maternal, eye care activities-based learning
+ Low cost distribution models
systems with innovative + Vocational and skills
pricing training
6. Acumen Fund has grown rapidly…
“And some foundations are
$82M combining philanthropy and
capitalism in a very innovative
INVESTED approach, like Acumen Fund.”
100M people Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
January 2010
REACHED BY OUR COMPANIES
57,000 JOBS
CREATED OR SUPPORTED
Launch
April 1st 2001
2001 2006 2012
7. … in conjunction with a an emergent
“impact investing” sector
200+ Funds
2001 2013
J.P. Morgan / Rockefeller report
November 2010
8. Patient Capital for long-term social impact
Traditional venture capital
Maximize financial return
Maximize Patient Capital
Blending social and
financial returns for
long-term social impact
Financial
return 0%
objective
Traditional philanthropy
Maximize social impact
No return
None Maximize
Social impact
objective
9. Business model pioneers require different
types and stages of capital
<$100K $250K – $1M $1M+
Blueprint Validate Prepare Scale Up
Create/setup initial Prepare business Scale to increase
Develop idea pilot and proof of model customer/supplier
concept sustainability base
There is a need for philanthropy and philanthropy-backed
patient capital investing to fill a gap the Validate & Prepare stages
Monitor Inclusive Markets, From Blueprint to Scale: The Case for Philanthropy in Impact Investing; April 2012
10. We work in low-income, emerging markets
Pakistan
+
Latin
America +
East India
+ + Africa
West +
Africa Acumen Fund Office
+ Local offices source
and diligence deals
+ 24 investment
professionals
+ In-country advisory
boards
11. Acumen East Africa
Investments: $21.4 M
Companies:19
Follow-on Capital: $56M
12. Alex and Wycliffe's Story: Using the Blue
Sweater to inspire change in Kenya
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfvsbldVjvM
13. East Africa Common Market Protocol
75% mobile penetration rate
30 million subscribers in a country of 40 million
$13.4 B of mobile transactions in 2011
14. Acumen’s investment criteria
• Potential for significant social impact
– Investment makes product or delivers service that
addresses critical need at the BoP in our areas of
strategic and geographic focus
• Potential for financial sustainability
– Business model achieves sustainability within 5 to 7
years
• Potential to achieve scale
– Reaches 1 million end users within 5 to 7 year period
17. Western Seed: Investment Opportunity
Western Seed: An Investment Opportunity
• Saleem Esmail came to us with
proposal to expand his hybrid seed
business, which
researches, develops and sells
hybrid maize seed that is 2-3 times
as productive as its competitors
• Goal is to increase production and
sales by 4 times and reach 850,000
small-holder farmers over the next 5
years
• Capital would be used to purchase
600 hectares of land to cultivate the
seed, to expand storage
facilities, and to aid in the breeding
and certification processes
18. Western Seed: Investment Opportunity
Western Seed: Acumen Fund Investment
• $2.1M debt/equity
investment in 2009
• Allowed them to
purchase 250 hectares of
land and increase
storage facilities
19. Western Seed: Investment
Western Seed: Impact Opportunity
• Increased seed production by over 2
times from the 2008-2009 season to the
2009-2010 season.
• Sold seeds to 150,000 small holder
farmers in 2009-2010. Farmer’s yields
increased by over 50%
• Served 365K farmers in 2011
• 2010 Acumen Fellow built out Direct
Access Sales Program to 8 districts in
Western Kenya
23. We launched East Africa Fellows Program in
2011
Acumen Fund launched the Regional Fellows
Program to train and support emerging leaders as
they realize their visions for their countries.
One-year fellowship
Our Goal is to create an interconnected
web of global leaders who share
values, drive change, and have a deep
commitment to building a more inclusive
economy and social system.
We received over 530 applications in
2011 and more than 600 in 2012.
24. We have received an extremely positive
response to the program
My dream is that young people from Being an Acumen East Africa
slums all over East Africa are Fellow has taught me how to tell
empowered to break from the my story better and how to
Poverty Cycle and work toward present it to a large audience
building better communities. The with confidence; how to let go of
East Africa Fellows Program the fear of failing; and above all
provides a platform where I feel provided me with a great
safe to try new approaches, new network, not just to potential
ideas. At the launch of the partners of my organisation, but
program, we were told that the to my peers - fellow
future is ours to truly create. We entrepreneurs and change
might fail at doing so, but we should makers who really get it!
feel safe to try.
Pauline Wanja Patricia Jumi
As an East Africa Fellow, I have
My vision is to see small scale
learnt to broaden my knowledge
farmers in East Africa transform
and gained skills and contacts
from subsistence farming to
that have helped me not only to
commercial Agriculture. The East
better support my work, but also
Africa Fellows Program is helping
to conceptualize new ideas that
achieve this vision by equipping me
can have a positive impact.
with the skills that compel me to
reflect on the most effective ways to
I have been inspired to do much
reach this goal.
more and to dare to achieve
more.
Joan Karanja
Wagikuyu Miring’u
26. +acumen online platform for Leadership training
Learn as a team. From anywhere in the world.
Acumen Leadership Moral Imagination
Essentials Salon Series
Startups Startups
Toolkit for Change: Toolkit for Change: Toolkit for Change:
Lean for Social Design Thinking Decoding the Impact
Startups Investing Sector Investing Sector
28. Pushing beyond outputs
• We have hired a new Head of Impact, Tom
Adams
• Moving forward on a Randomized Control Trial
in 2013
– Western Seed
– University of California, Davis
• A continuous push to
– Count outputs consistently
– Develop our thinking from outputs to outcomes and
impacts
29. Thank you
Dignity, not dependence
Choice, not charity
