Acumen Appoints Carsten Stendevad as President and Chief Investment Officer

NEW YORK (May 9, 2025) — Acumen, a leading impact investor, today announced the appointment of Carsten Stendevad as its new President and Chief Investment Officer. An internationally recognized investment leader and sustainable finance innovator, Stendevad will help guide the next chapter of Acumen’s investment strategy and growth, which covers its patient capital portfolios with more than 200 companies as well as thematic venture funds such as the Acumen Resilient Agriculture Fund (ARAF) and KawiSafi Ventures. He will work alongside Founder and CEO Jacqueline Novogratz. 

Stendevad has held numerous leadership positions among leading global financial and non-profit institutions. He joins Acumen from Bridgewater Associates, where he served as Partner and Co-Chief Investment Officer for Sustainable Investing.

“For the past 20 years, I have followed with admiration the pioneering work that Jacqueline and the whole team at Acumen have pursued to harness the power of investing to solve the world’s most pressing challenges,” said Carsten Stendevad. “I am honored to join their mission and have the opportunity to expand the scale and reach of Acumen’s work, helping ensure that financial markets work for everyone, especially the most vulnerable among us.”

Stendevad previously served as CEO of ATP, Denmark’s national pension fund, and Managing Director in Citi’s Investment Banking division. He also worked for McKinsey & Co. He is currently the Chair of the Board for the Danish Refugee Council and a Board Advisor to GIC (Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund). He also serves on the Council on Foreign Relations and is a founding member of the “Focusing Capital on the Long-Term” coalition. Stendevad previously served on the boards of Novo Holding and UNICEF Denmark, and he was a member of the steering committee for the Blended Finance Task Force to mobilize capital towards the SDGs.

Acumen deploys a spectrum of capital to support the world’s most innovative entrepreneurs in creating and scaling financially viable solutions to poverty. Since its founding in 2001, Acumen has trained over 1,800 fellows through Acumen Academy and invested in 215 companies across the globe, shaping 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. The organization’s goals are ambitious: to impact a billion lives by 2030 through its investments.

Stendevad’s appointment comes as Acumen accelerates its Hardest-to-Reach initiative—a $250 million, five-year blended finance effort to achieve universal energy access in sub-Saharan Africa—and expands its climate adaptation investing across multiple regions. Last year, Acumen 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.

“Carsten’s deep experience in global investing and sustainable finance, paired with his unwavering commitment to long-term impact, makes him uniquely equipped to accelerate Acumen’s work at a time when the world needs it most,” said Jacqueline Novogratz, Acumen’s founder and CEO. “The challenges facing vulnerable communities are growing more complex. With Carsten’s leadership, we will scale innovative solutions to poverty and create markets that work for everyone.”

About Acumen

Acumen is a global force of entrepreneurs, investors, philanthropists, and social innovators working together to build a world based on dignity. We were founded by Jacqueline Novogratz on the radical idea that business, when cultivated with moral imagination, can break the cycle of poverty. We invest in transformational companies, build sustainable markets, and prepare leaders with the tools they need to create a more just and inclusive future. Since 2001, we have scaled companies and shaped markets in some of the hardest-to-reach communities on the planet, impacting over half-a-billion lives. To learn more visit acumen.org.