How do you get people to start giving a sh*t about sh*t? That’s the question constantly on the mind of Lindsay Stradley, Co-founder of our investee Sanergy, a social enterprise building sustainable toilets in the slums of East Africa and serving 55,000 residents daily. As Lindsay explains in her newly released TED Talk, addressing the global sanitation crisis starts with first … Continued
Acumen, in conjunction with UNIX Gallery, is pleased to present Faces Of Change, a solo exhibition by German photographer Martin Schoeller.
As a long-time partner of Acumen, I thought I knew the organization’s work very well, but after a recent trip to Pakistan, I was pleasantly surprised to see the extent of Acumen’s impact in the country. My journey started after being invited to attend Acumen’s first-ever Pakistan Partner Trip with a group of 11 partners … Continued
In 2017, we made five new Acumen America investments across our priority areas—financial inclusion, workforce development and health.
At Acumen’s Energy Summit in London, we chatted with sector experts about the current state of investing in off-grid energy. Collectively, we examined the types of capital required to scale off-grid energy companies and the magnitude of investment needed to achieve universal energy access. Led by Daniel Goldfarb, CEO of Lendable, and Amar Inamdar, Managing … Continued
We recently asked a group of off-grid energy experts, including our entrepreneurs and other industry leaders, where they are seeing truly new, groundbreaking innovations in sales, distribution and financing? While we were hoping for an example of true invention, what we’ve learned is that the frontiers of innovation in off-grid energy are currently found in … Continued
When Acumen first began investing in West Africa in 2011, we believed that many of the business models, products and services would translate from East Africa. Overcoming contextual differences, such as access to mobile money and a willingness to pay, was tougher than we thought especially when it came to the energy sector. That, however, … Continued
When you hear the term “unicorn,” you usually think of Silicon Valley. Your mind goes to companies like AirBnB and Snapchat, startups that seem to grow from zero to $1 billon overnight, not to social enterprises trying to bring energy to the poor. But we’re seeing a trend emerge in the off-grid sector, in which … Continued