Acumen Fund
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Type | Non-profit organization |
|---|---|
| Founded | April 2001 |
| Founder(s) | Jacqueline Novogratz |
| Website | www.acumenfund.org |
Acumen Fund is a non-profit global venture fund that uses entrepreneurial approaches to solve the problems of global poverty. Its aim is to help build financially sustainable and scalable organizations that deliver affordable critical goods and services that improve the lives of the poor. Acumen Fund is a 501(c)(3) organization headquartered in New York, with regional offices in India, Kenya and Pakistan.
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[edit] History
Acumen Fund was incorporated on April 1, 2001, with seed capital from the Rockefeller Foundation, Cisco Systems Foundation and three individual philanthropists. Acumen Fund’s investors and advisors have grown to include a wide range of individuals and organizations including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Google.org and the Skoll Foundation.[1] Jacqueline Novogratz is the founder and CEO of Acumen Fund.[2]
[edit] Investments
Acumen Fund uses patient capital to build transformative businesses. The fund makes disciplined investments – loans or equity, not grants – that yield both financial and social returns. As of June 30, 2008, Acumen Fund had approved $34m in investments in the following countries: India, Pakistan, Kenya, Tanzania, Egypt and South Africa. According to its website, it supports 26 thriving enterprises, helping over 36 million people. Investments are separated into five portfolios: Water, Health, Housing, Energy and Agriculture. Acumen Fund commitments range from $300,000 to $2,000,000 in equity or debt with a payback or exit in roughly five to seven years.[3]
[edit] Goals
Acumen Fund has set a goal of making $100 million in investments, touching 50 million lives. Additionally, it seeks to set the global standard for how to affect wide-reaching social change in poverty alleviation and private sector development by:
- Identifying extraordinary social enterprises with innovative approaches to serving the world’s poor in the areas of health, water, and housing;
- Supporting these enterprises to become financially sustainable and scalable with equity and debt financing and intensive support;
- Creating the standard for measuring the social and financial returns of these investments and establishing a position of thought leadership based on these successes;
- Building a global community of professionals (staff and Fellows), donors, institutional partners and social entrepreneurs capable of deploying financial, human and intellectual capital to solve some of the most intractable problems of poverty.
[edit] Fellows Program
The Acumen Fund Fellows Program selects young professionals each year and provides them with the chance to work with Acumen portfolio organizations in Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, India and Pakistan. The Fellows spend one year, starting in September, working with the Acumen team and local entrepreneurs.[4]
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Acumen Fund website
- Acumen Fund blog
- Investing in the World's Poor Stanford Graduate School of Business, May 2007
- Philanthropy and Development in Emerging Markets, Business Week, March 2, 2009
- Hard Lessons Learnt in the War on Poverty, Financial Times, February 24, 2009
- Developing Entrepreneurship among the World's Poorest The McKinsey Quarterly, March 2009
- The Patient Capitalist The Economist, May 21, 2009
