Investing in Enterprises for the Base of the Pyramid
Acumen Fund invests in businesses that bring essential goods and services, such as access to clean water, reliable health services, or formal housing options, to “base of the pyramid” (BoP) customers. We are continually building our pipeline and welcome information about possible new investment opportunities that meet the following criteria:
- Geography: East Africa, India, and Pakistan
- Sectors: Water, Health, Agriculture, Energy, Housing
- Investment size: Acumen typically invests in the range of $200K-$2M, structured as either debt or equity.
- Stage: Early-mid stage companies that are in the process of scaling. We rarely invest in pure start-up companies.
Quality applicants will have well-conceived models surrounding social impact, financial sustainability, and ability to scale.
Criteria
Please review our Investment Discipline page for more detailed information on how we evaluate and structure our investments. If your business meets these criteria, we’d like to hear more about it!
To be considered for funding, please complete the following two steps:
- Fill out the general form.
- Join Google Docs, upload your 4-6 page Executive Summary in PDF format, and share your document with businessplans@acumenfund.org. Strong candidates will be asked to submit a full business plan. Executive Summary guidelines are below.
Executive Summary Guidelines
We look for concise and concrete summaries which address the key questions articulated below. Please do not answer each question explicitly, but describe your business in a way that addresses these questions.
An executive summary is a four-to-six page overview of your business. The business plan is typically a 20-25 page plan that outlines in detail all of the topics covered in the Executive Summary (which, standalone, could total 4-6 pages but when included as part of the business plan is 1-2 pages). Please review Acumen Fund’s template table of contents for a business plan.
Our Executive Summary & Business Plan Resource sheet provides sources for further business plan development support.
Executive Summary Questions
Entrepreneur and Team:
What is the background of the entrepreneur and leadership team? What roles do they fill? Why are they qualified to lead this venture? What are their skills, do their skills complement one another; are there any skill gaps? Do they work well together?
Product:
What is the product (define succinctly)? What pain point facing Base-of-pyramid (BoP) customers does this product address? How does this product – in a unique or superior way – address the pain point? What is this product’s unique advantage? (Unique solution? Product innovation? Improved quality? Business model innovation? Customer reach? Unique partnership?)
Customers:
Who are the target customers? What customers have used product/service, and what impact has it had on their lives? What is the customer’s willingness to pay? How large is the addressable market size, and customer demand? What evidence exists that customers care about the value proposition (customer referrals, voice of the customer interviews, etc)?
Competition:
What is the competition? What is the advantage (in areas that matter to the end customer) of this product/service over existing ones that are either currently available on the market or through charitable distribution channels? What are those alternatives? What are the three-to-four key market drivers that would affect the market and all players operating within it?
Operations/Distribution:
How will the entrepreneur be able to produce the product, or deliver the service? What is the distribution strategy to reach the customer? What is the customer acquisition strategy? What aspects of the business model have/have not been tested or piloted?
Impact - Social Impact:
What is the theory of change? How do you see your organization causing customer “actions” that link to measurable “outcomes” and thus real “impact”? What social or environmental impact can be achieved (positive and negative)? How does your organization intend to measure these outcomes, and how do they tie to social impact? (e.g. metrics, definitions)
Impact - Scalability:
What is the existing scale (e.g. number of customers reached)? How will organization achieve significant scale within five years (e.g. reach 1M end users; grow by order of magnitude; see Investment Discipline for other ways to demonstrate scalability)
Impact - Financial Sustainability:
What is the revenue model? When will the product/service be cash-flow positive?; financially sustainable? What milestones will this financing round enable? (please include a copy of the company’s financials,, and explain any assumptions used)
Risks
What keeps you awake at night? What are the main risks your organization faces or would face, and how can each risk be mitigated? (e.g around technology, manufacturing, product, marketing, IP, demand, operations, distribution model, etc.)
