Acumen
Acumen is a nonprofit impact investment organization that uses patient capital to invest in early-stage businesses serving low-income communities in developing countries. Its work spans impact investing, leadership training through Acumen Academy, and market-building across sectors including clean energy, sustainable agriculture, education, and healthcare.www.acumen.org
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Search complete. 5 mentions across 5 episodes found for "Acumen".
Sep 15, 2026
Ed MylettHOST
Mm-hmm.
Alex HormoziGUEST
Um, but I've had a weird shift where I was like, "Oh, I guess I am gonna leave this to someone." 'Cause until this point, it was just, "I'm gonna write it to charity in one check and let it go to like the Acumen Fund or some of these really good institutions that know how to deploy capital in a charitable way."
Ed MylettHOST
Hmm.
Alex HormoziGUEST
'Cause I was just like this was just chips to play the game.
Rita SoniGUEST
I would say that's when a lot of these experiments were coming around of business solutions to poverty.
Rita SoniGUEST
Folks like Acumen Fund were being born.
Rita SoniGUEST
And those that were really thinking, if we have the right capital and there is a business solution, then the capital can scale those solutions.
Rita SoniGUEST
So yeah, I mean, I think After that decade and then Everest Group, I've now stumbled into being a social entrepreneur and trying to create something that will bring together a bunch of stakeholders to actually solve why this hasn't grown, hasn't taken off even faster.
Randall KempnerGUEST
So I don't want to take too much credit.
Randall KempnerGUEST
But what happened is that there were leading players in the space, groups like Root Capital and Acumen Fund and TechnoServe, that came together with many others, and they told their funders that this kind of institution would be valuable and important.
Randall KempnerGUEST
And so I think one takeaway from that point is that It is best and most effective often when it is actually the groups that are being helped that tell the philanthropists they need this kind of ecosystem player as opposed to the opposite.
Randall KempnerGUEST
It is unfortunately true that broadly foundations don't like to fund infrastructure in this sense, the ecosystem organizations.
Devika SarinGUEST
It got me into impact investing.
Devika SarinGUEST
I'm really inspired by Jacqueline Novogratz, who's the founder of Acumen, which is one of the largest impact investment organizations.
Devika SarinGUEST
And, you know, a lot of what she talks about.
Devika SarinGUEST
And at the time, she had given a commencement speech at Gettysburg.
Mel ButcherHOST
Okay, I've just got one.
Mel ButcherHOST
So listeners, Jacqueline Novogratz, the CEO of Acumen.
Mel ButcherHOST
She's the author of Manifesto for a Moral Revolution.
Mel ButcherHOST
It's a fantastic book.