Reimagining capital: Inside Acumen’s next chapter with Carsten Stendevad

Acumen is entering a new chapter as Carsten Stendevad joins as our President and Chief Investment Officer. An internationally recognized investment leader and sustainable finance innovator, Stendevad will help guide Acumen’s investment strategy and growth, which covers our patient capital portfolios with more than 200 companies as well as thematic venture funds such as the Acumen Resilient Agriculture Fund (ARAF), KawiSafi, and Hardest-to-Reach.

Carsten brings to Acumen extensive leadership experience from some of the largest financial institutions in the world, most recently as Co-Chief Investment Officer for Sustainable Investing at the world’s largest hedge fund, Bridgewater Associates, and as CEO of ATP, Denmark’s national pension fund (read more about his background here). 

In this Q&A, Carsten shares what drew him to Acumen and how his background in institutional finance is shaping his vision for advancing impact investing and building more inclusive markets.

Q: What drew you to Acumen after a career in institutional finance?

I first heard about Acumen when Jacqueline launched it 24 years ago. I was fascinated by the vision of harnessing the power of investing to solve pressing challenges. I have followed Acumen’s incredible journey ever since and been deeply inspired by Acumen’s relentless commitment to impact and to fighting poverty.

Throughout my career across various large institutional investors, I’ve tried to bend the work of those institutions toward having a broader role in society. Joining Acumen is a unique opportunity for me to now place solving problems of poverty at the very center of investment strategy.

Q:  How do you see Acumen at this moment in its journey?

Looking back, Acumen has a two-decade unparalleled track record of impact—having invested in 215 companies across the globe and training over 1,800 Fellows through Acumen Academy. Through these activities, Acumen has shaped inclusive markets in agriculture, clean energy, workforce development, and more. Acumen’s leadership in climate adaptation finance and its pioneering use of blended capital have helped address systemic challenges facing low-income communities across Africa, South Asia, Latin America, and the United States. 

Looking forward, the goal is ambitious: to impact a billion lives by 2030 through its investments by leaning into some of the world’s toughest challenges—from bringing energy to Africa’s frontier markets and financing climate-smart agriculture to building inclusive economies in Latin America and training the next generation of social entrepreneurs through Acumen Academy. 

Acumen has an exciting pipeline of innovative initiatives including our Hardest-to-Reach initiative—a $250 million, five-year blended finance effort to bring 75 million Africans in last-mile communities access to affordable solar electricity. Last year, we announced a separate $300 million, five-year commitment to help close the agrifood adaptation finance gap, reach 40 million smallholder farmers, and feed one billion people by 2030. This investment pipeline makes Acumen one of the largest nonprofit impact investors in the world, so it feels like an incredibly exciting moment to join Acumen.

Q: You’ve seen the disconnect between capital markets and vulnerable communities firsthand. How does that shape your work at Acumen?

Traditional capital markets largely bypass the markets and countries where the needs are the greatest. Even within the global field of impact investing, despite all the progress and impact that has occurred over the past decade, too little capital reaches the areas with the greatest needs. I have seen this again and again in my investing career, whether in boardrooms or investment committees, or in my personal experiences around the world. 

Over the past few weeks, I have had flashbacks to a period early in my career when I worked for Citigroup in India. Every day as I drove through Mumbai, I was reminded of the stark contrast between the relative ease of capital access for the established Indian companies that I advised to the utter lack of access in so many of the neighborhoods right outside my window. That contrast made a deep impression on me. I was fortunate to get introduced to a few incredible local social entrepreneurs whom I supported with capital and the same type of advisory help that I was providing to established Indian companies. I was deeply inspired by their passion, resourcefulness, and smarts, and so impressed with the businesses they built and the impact they had. Two decades later, I’m joining Acumen precisely because of its commitment to overcome this disconnect between capital markets and vulnerable communities. 

Q: Why now? What makes this the right time for you — and for Acumen?

The world is facing a daunting and seemingly growing list of problems, and yet wealthier countries seem to be pulling inwards and away from the plight of the most vulnerable. I felt this was a great time to join forces with an institution that is so committed to leaning into solving the hardest problems for the most vulnerable. With traditional development approaches under pressure, the world needs bold and innovative solutions, and Acumen’s model has something unique to offer exactly for this moment in time.

While I am incredibly excited about the mission, I am under no illusion that it will be easy.  Patient capital and impact investing is hard and requires a combination of disciplined investment processes with creativity, patience, deep empathy, and commitment to lean into the hardest challenges. I have a lot to learn from my new colleagues, and I hope to contribute the learnings and toolkit that I have accumulated over the past 25 years. I can’t wait to get started.