Climate change is actively undoing decades of progress against poverty. Only 3% of global climate finance goes toward adaptation and resilience, even though 2 billion people live in the world's most climate-vulnerable countries, precisely where that finance isn't flowing. Entrepreneurs across these markets are already delivering locally-rooted solutions that improve livelihoods and build resilience for low-income communities while mitigating emissions.Â
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What's missing isn't innovative ideas or capable leaders. It's the right kind of capital, support, and investors, ready to meet entrepreneurs' ambition.Â
So we asked them directly. Through ‘Founders in Focus: The State of Impact Capital’, Acumen surveyed 140 entrepreneurs — a vast majority working across agriculture, clean energy, and other climate-related sectors — on what they really need from impact investors and where we, as an industry, need to do better. This event is where we share what we heard. Acumen Founders from seed to growth stages will share their own stories: what it actually takes to build a climate business in a developing market, raise capital, and transform the lives of low-income customers. We'll also present the high-level survey findings and have an honest conversation about what impact investors need to change.
Acumen surveyed 140 entrepreneurs across sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, and Latin America on what they really need from impact investors and where we, as an industry, need to do better. We'll share the key learnings, while entrepreneurs ground the insights with stories of their own experiences building a climate business, raising capital, and transforming the lives of low-income customers.Â
Speakers:
Anish Malpani, Founder, Without
Caleb Edwards, CEO, Wami Agro Limited
Natalie Casey, Chief Business Officer, Koolboks
Coco Lim, Manager of Insights, Acumen
Acumen was founded by Jacqueline Novogratz on the radical idea that business, built with moral imagination, can solve problems of poverty. We take risks other investors won't and back brave entrepreneurs from the beginning. Our Patient Capital gives companies time to grow, and our pooled capital funds unlock their scale. At Acumen Academy, the leaders behind innovative solutions get the tools and community they need to create a world based on dignity. Since 2001, we have trained over 2000 leaders, scaled over 250 companies and shaped markets in some of the hardest-to-reach communities on the planet. The result? Nearly one billion lives impacted.
