About Acumen Fund
Acumen Fund is a non-profit global venture fund that uses entrepreneurial approaches to solve the problems of global poverty. We seek to prove that small amounts of philanthropic capital, combined with large doses of business acumen, can build thriving enterprises that serve vast numbers of the poor. Our investments focus on delivering affordable, critical goods and services like health, water, housing and energy through innovative, market-oriented approaches.
Changing the Development Paradigm
We believe that pioneering entrepreneurs will ultimately find the solutions to poverty. The entrepreneurs Acumen Fund supports are focused on offering critical services water, health, housing, and energy at affordable prices to people earning less than four dollars a day.
The key is patient capital.
We use philanthropic capital to make disciplined investments loans or equity, not grants that yield both financial and social returns. Any financial returns we receive are recycled into new investments. In the past six years, we have refined the Acumen Fund investment model, built a world-class global team with offices in four countries, and learned what does and does not work in growing businesses that serve low-income people.
To learn more about the Acumen Fund model and history, visit the About section of our website.
About this Blog
The Acumen Fund blog highlights news and offers commentary on social investments, entrepreneurship, base of the pyramid (BoP) business strategies, and other organizations and projects related to Acumen Fund’s mission to solve the problems of global poverty through entrepreneurial solutions.
Though authored by Acumen Fund’s global staff, readers are encouraged to add their voices through the comments section at the bottom of each entry or by suggesting a story.
Our Authors
Click on the author’s name on any blog entry for a short biography and list of all previous posts. You can also visit the individual pages on our website for more information about the Acumen Fund team.
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