Our Approach

Patient capital that dares to go where markets have failed and aid has fallen short

The markets alone cannot solve the problems of poverty; nor are charity and aid enough to tackle the challenges faced by over two-thirds of the world’s population living in poverty. Patient capital is a third way that seeks to bridge the gap between the efficiency and scale of market-based approaches and the social impact of pure philanthropy.

OUR APPROACH TO INVESTING

Patient capital

Rather than investing traditional capital, we invest philanthropic, or “patient,” capital that provides startups with the flexibility and security to grow their business and reach as many poor customers as possible.

Learn more

Early-stage investments

We make seed and early-stage investments that enable social enterprises to validate assumptions, bring products and services to market, and begin to scale.

Explore our portfolio

Access to expertise

We provide our companies with access to our expertise and networks of advisors who have deep sector, channel and customer experience.

See our partners

Post-investment support

To help our companies grow and scale, we offer active post-investment support and guidance in the areas of strategy, governance, customer insights and fundraising.

Meet Our Team

We’ve impacted more than 263 million lives through

$146

MILLION INVESTED

in breakthrough innovations
155

COMPANIES SERVING

low-income customers
13

COUNTRIES IN

Africa, Asia, Latin America and the U.S.

INVESTMENT PRINCIPLES

Eight Investment Principles serve as Acumen’s commitment to use its capital where it is needed most, to unleash those nascent but promising innovations that other investors will not take the risk of supporting.

Want to know more about becoming an Acumen investee?

Learn about our investment criteria

Get Our Newsletter To Stay Up To Date