2025 Annual Report
The Acumen Effect
Introduction
For people living in poverty, every global crisis lands hardest. War. Extreme weather. Technological disruption. The pressure is compounding while many of the institutions that once served traditional aid are stepping back. That’s why in 2025, Acumen stepped up.
We invest in entrepreneurs building solutions to some of the toughest problems on the planet. Each investment is designed to catalyze the next, creating an ecosystem of impact that goes far beyond the numbers. Last year that ecosystem expanded. We trained more Fellows than ever before, backed more companies with Patient Capital, and scaled solutions across three urgent and interconnected issues: Dignified Jobs, Climate Resilience, and Gender Equality.
Our Impact
More info
Aggregate refers to the total breadth or lives impacted by Acumen Patient Capital companies and funds cumulatively as of December 31, 2025. The aggregates are obtained keeping in mind that a unique life will be reached only once, regardless of being benefited across different products or services. Investee companies which are included under more than one fund are also counted only once for the period of the investment. See next page regarding funds' calculations.
Patient Capital
By region
(as a percentage of total cumulative since 2001)
- 27% East Africa
- 24% India
- 14% Multi-region
- 13% America
- 10% West Africa
- 8% Pakistan
- 6% Latin America
By sector
(as a percentage of total cumulative since 2001)
- 30% Energy
- 24% Agriculture
- 24% Health
- 9% Education / Workforce
- 6% Financial Inclusion
- 4% Water and Sanitation
- 3% Housing
Lives impacted captures the breadth of impact that the company has achieved. We consider each life unique and aim to count each life that is impacted, once, regardless if they benefit multiple times
Disbursement includes $100k USD tagged to FDP/Refugee Lens
Returnable funds
We leverage commercial and blended finance instruments to scale strategic solutions to problems of poverty.
For KawiSafi, lives impacted is calculated using GOGLA methodology (best practice) which incorporates a 3% repeat sales discount. This rate is now relatively low, considering the significant growth of the industry. To better reflect current market dynamics, the fund has updated the repeat sales discount to 21% for d.light and OPES. It has also introduced discount factors on prior lantern sales - of 17% (East Africa) and 14% (Other Markets) based on data provided by d.light. Lanterns are assumed not to generate any multiplier effect.
- $48.5M invested
Amounts represent total invested since fund inception, as of year-end 2025, rounded to the nearest $1 million.
- 11 Active investments
- Focus sector: Renewable energy access
†ALIVE is a team-owned investment adviser sponsored by Acumen.
- $84M invested
Total combined for Acumen Latin America Early Growth (ALEG) Funds I and II, managed by ALIVE. ALIVE is a team owned manager sponsored by Acumen. Amounts represent total invested since fund inception, as of year-end 2025, rounded to the nearest $1 million.
- 17 Active investments
- Focus sector: Sustainable income generation opportunities, Solutions for climate resilience & adaptation, Access to critical goods and services, Pathways to quality jobs
- $40M invested
Amounts represent total invested since fund inception, as of year-end 2025, rounded to the nearest $1 million.
- 12 Active investments
- Focus sector: Climate Resilient Agriculture
Juergen Sauer, Munich
Climate resilience
Bridging sustainable agriculture and renewable energy to secure our global future.
Renewable Energy
Powering the path out of poverty
More than 600 million people still lack electricity, and rising energy costs are forcing low-income families to cut back on basic necessities. That’s why Acumen invests in Fellows and entrepreneurs committed to innovative business models that expand energy access. In 2025, we launched one fund that directs catalytic capital toward off-grid solar in sub-Saharan Africa and another that invests in clean alternatives to diesel and electric mobility for the people left behind by the EV revolution.
sample size =30 including Patient Capital
sample size =30 including Patient Capital
Meet Two of our Climate Investees and Innovators
Energy Assured
Energy Assured Nigeria provides mobile solar irrigation pumps to smallholder rice farmers in Northern Nigeria through a cluster rental model, where groups of farmers share a pump for as little as $9 per month. Acumen's investment through PEII+ supports expansion to new states and local manufacturing capacity.
- 100% of enrolled farmers report higher earnings.
- 20,000+ farmers impacted, 45,000+ tonnes of CO2 emissions avoided.
"Clean energy should protect both people and the planet. With Acumen's support, we can show that clean energy is essential for a resilient, food-secure future."
Ibrahim Aboki
Founder & CEO, Energy Assured
eBik
eBik delivers clean, affordable electric mobility to communities left behind by India's EV market. Its Roadster e-bike and retrofit kits for manual carts are available in 25 cities across India and enable locals to earn more from commercial activities and avoid vehicles that emit harmful pollutants.
- Patented Roadster e-bike is 20-50% cheaper than comparable alternatives.
- 2,770+ tonnes of carbon saved and counting.
Ecobora
Ecobora equips rural schools in Kenya with solar-powered clean cooking systems that eliminate firewood costs, improve student nutrition, and redirect savings toward classrooms and digital learning. Founded by Acumen Fellow and Angels awardee Justine Abuga, Ecobora enables schools to generate carbon credits and self-finance their cookstoves over time.
- Reached 170,000 students across 170+ schools by 2025.
- Carbon credits enable schools to self-finance clean cooking.
Sustainable Agriculture
Strengthening the backbone of the global food supply
Half a billion smallholder farmers feed the world, yet make a fraction of the final sale price of the food they grow. Intensifying drought, unpredictable rainfall, and rising temperatures put them under greater strain. Last year Acumen invested in Fellows and companies working to reverse this, from cold storage providers to e-commerce platforms to cacao cooperatives. By better connecting farmers to markets and supporting climate-smart practices, we’re boosting farmer resilience and profits.
cumulatively including ARAF
sample size = 15
sample size = 5
Meet three of our agriculture innovators
Wami Agro
Wami Agro is a Ghanaian agritech company giving smallholder farmers reliable access to markets, credit, and climate-smart support. Through Wami Market, Wami Credit, and Wami Info, farmers get fair prices, financing, and training. Acumen's Trellis investment supports expansion into Sierra Leone and Burkina Faso.
- Farmer yields rise 44%, and incomes grow 25-30% per season.
- 14,000+ farmers across six regions, 55% of them women.
Ecohome
Ecohome restores Colombia's tropical dry forest by turning ecological regeneration into income for rural families. Through its Chumbimbo Protectors Network, producers plant native trees whose fruit becomes bioproducts replacing petrochemical ingredients. Acumen's investment supports expansion from 220 to 700 partner families by 2030.
- 35,000+ trees planted, offsetting 480 tonnes CO2 annually.
- Aiming to restore 1% of Colombia's tropical dry forest.
"The tropical dry forest has lost over 90% of its original coverage. Restoring it is not only an environmental urgency but a strategic opportunity."
Maritza López
CEO, Ecohome
Loom Craft Chocolate
Loom Craft Chocolate redefines Nigeria's cocoa sector by producing bean-to-bar chocolate at origin while ensuring farmers earn more from their harvests. Founded by Uzoamaka Igweike, Loom is a woman-led manufacturer supplying bakers and chocolatiers across Nigeria with entirely locally sourced cocoa.
- Targeting 500,000 chocolate bars annually by 2029.
- Sourcing network expanding to 1,000+ smallholder farmers.
Dignified jobs
Building a fairer future for workers
Too often, people living in poverty work unsafe jobs for unfair wages. Last year exacerbated the problem as climate disruption, regional conflicts, and AI created new waves of displacement and left workers without the skills to adapt. Acumen responded by supporting Fellows who are equipping young people with critical skills to close the talent gap. And we backed companies that are driving the transition to green jobs and creating work that is good for both people and the planet.
Meet three of our workforce innovators
Instollar
Instollar is a Nigerian digital marketplace connecting solar companies with vetted, on-demand technicians across all 36 states. Founded by Acumen Fellow and Angels awardee Chinwe Udo-Davis, Instollar illustrates the full arc of Acumen's support, from Fellowship to Angels to investment, accelerating Nigeria's clean energy transition.
- 1,400+ vetted technicians, 2,000+ installations completed.
- Targeting 10,000 female certified solar technicians by 2030.
"Access to clean energy depends not just on technology, but on people. With Acumen's support, we can expand economic opportunity while accelerating the clean energy transition."
Chinwe Udo-Davis
CEO, Instollar
Bintix
This first-of-its kind waste-tech venture collects, tags, and analyzes household waste across seven cities in India. The result? Actionable insights for major brands, higher revenues for waste partners, less plastic in landfills and the ocean, and more dignified jobs for informal waste workers.
- Workers earn up to 2.4x more after joining Bintix.
- On track for nearly 2,000 direct jobs by 2030.
"Waste has a story to tell. We've learned how to turn something overlooked into data, dignity, and opportunity."
Jayanarayan Kulathingal and Roshan Miranda
Co-Founders, Bintix
Romoni Services
Romoni Services transforms economic opportunity for low-income women in Bangladesh through entrepreneurship in the beauty industry. Acumen Fellow and Angels awardee Armin Khan founded the company to provide skills training, microloans, and financial services, enabling women to launch their own businesses and build lasting financial independence.
- Women entrepreneurs grew their incomes by roughly 4.5x.
- Paying customers grew 38% from 2023 to 2025, reaching 50k.
Gender equality
Backing women to build community resilience
Women living in poverty face persistent barriers, from gender discrimination to limited education to unpaid care. Their economic empowerment is one of the most effective ways to build resilient communities, strengthening families and local economies at the same time. In 2025, Acumen continued to invest in female Fellows and entrepreneurs. We equipped portfolio companies with gender-smart tools and applied a gender lens to back businesses creating dignified work and lasting livelihoods.
This means they are meeting the industry benchmark on women representation in leadership, employment, and ownership, and have implemented intentional governance mechanisms and policies supporting gender equity.
Meet three of our gender equality innovators
Vitara
Vitara (formerly Sommalife) is a Ghanaian agribusiness connecting women smallholder farmers to fair markets through transparent, tech-enabled supply chains. Its TreeSyt platform tracks crops from farm to buyer, unlocking premium pricing through real-time traceability. Acumen's Trellis investment anchored Vitara's pre-Series A round.
- 90% of 40,000 active suppliers are women.
- Conservation work spans 1,500+ acres and 27,000 trees saved.
"Acumen joining us as an investor is a full-circle moment, with impact and value creation at the center."
Mawuse Gyisun
Co-Founder & COO, Vitara
AgroEknor
AgroEknor is a Nigerian agribusiness working end-to-end across the hibiscus value chain, from production to export. By partnering directly with farmers on climate-smart training and premium pricing, AgroEknor eliminates middlemen. Its YieldPro platform delivers traceability for global buyers meeting international export standards.
- 82% farmer partners are women, 70% reporting improved income.
- Quadrupled farmer partners to 24,000 through the FEEP program.
RightWalk Foundation
RightWalk Foundation proves that policy change is one of the most powerful tools for gender equity in India. Acumen Fellow and Angels awardee Samina Bano works directly with government systems to convert social policies on education, health, and livelihood into real outcomes for women and girls long excluded from their promise.
- 1.3M+ lives impacted, majority women and girls.
- Every dollar spent can unlock hundreds in public funding.
Partners
Acumen's Partner community is made up of bold, early movers. Philanthropists, charitable foundations and corporations who direct their resources toward the kind of impact that multiplies. In a moment when many institutions are stepping back, Partners step up. They fund solutions that build better systems from the ground up and back the entrepreneurs driving change where it matters most.
- Chris Anderson & Jacqueline Novogratz
- Ballmer Group
- The CH Foundation
- The Challenge Fund for Youth Employment, managed by the Palladium Group, Randstad and VSO, and funded by the Netherlands Ministry for Foreign Affairs
- The ELMA Foundation
- The Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet
- Green Climate Fund
- Hastings/Quillin Fund
- IKEA Foundation
- Mastercard Foundation
- Norad
- Reckitt
- Andrea E. Soros
- UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO)
- Anonymous
- Ashla Foundation
- Autodesk Foundation
- Kathleen Chew Wai Lin & Yeoh Seok Hong (Sorted by Chew)
- Conrad N. Hilton Foundation
- Gates Foundation
- Giving Wings
- Government of Canada
- IDB Lab
- Malin Ströman & Sebastian Knutsson
- The Lam Nguyen-Phuong Family
- Craig & Kirsten Nevill-Manning
- Open Society Foundations
- Quadrature Climate Foundation
- Shaiza Rizavi & Jon Friedland
- Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
- Soros Economic Development Fund
- Steven Ross & Shelley Scherer
- Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation
- Takeda
- Target Foundation
- UK Aid from the UK government via the Transforming Energy Access (TEA) platform
- UBS Optimus Foundation
- Barclays
- Distributed Power Fund
- FMO Finance for Development
- Fundación Bancolombia
- Asiff Hirji & Sarah Wigglesworth
- Rebecca G. Kinney
- Osprey Foundation
- PFC S.p.A. Societa Benefit
- Stone Steps Foundation
- The C&C Tremann Foundation
- Woodcock Foundation
- Alnylam Pharmaceuticals
- The Amit J. and Vicky L. Patel Foundation
- Anonymous
- Matthew Courey
- DREAMS Asia Limited
- Fahad Ghaffar
- Fondation La Gara
- Fundación Santo Domingo
- Leomi Foundation
- Ann MacDougall & Jules Kaufman
- PayPal
- Public Benefit Innovation Fund at Digital Harbor Foundation
- SWIFT
- Matthew & Anupama Tate
- Ainslie Foundation
- Anonymous (5)
- Diana Barrett
- Brook and Shawn Byers
- Howard P. Colhoun Family Foundation
- Dalio Philanthropies
- Godley Family Foundation
- Lucille Foundation
- Midas Safety
- The Millby Foundation
- The Robert & Kate Niehaus Foundation
- SAP
- The Seneca Trust
- ServiceNow
- Margo Alexander
- Caroline Ankarcrona
- Anonymous
- Bank of America
- C. Hunter Boll
- Cazenova Capital
- Crabby Beach Foundation
- Murray Dalziel
- Rebecca Eastmond
- Egan Family Charitable Fund
- Joe Gebbia Helmsley Charitable Trust
- David and Theresa Kester
- Nate Laurell & Kris McCoy
- The Lawrence Foundation
- Lubetzky Family Foundation
- Sean Phelan & Audrey Mandela
- Reinhardt Family Fund
- The Resnick Foundation
- Craig & Jennifer Staub
- Dulari Amin
- Anonymous (3)
- Arch Capital Group
- Santiago Ardissone
- Amy Blackwell
- Brenneke Family Fund
- Karen Brown
- Ninan Chacko
- Daniel Chapman
- Katherine Collins
- The Columbus Foundation
- Tom Cooper
- Corporación Andina de Fomento
- Andy Darrell
- Shirin Sultan Dossa Foundation
- Carlos Feged
- Minal & Sheryl Fofaria
- Bert & Candace Forbes
- Fox Family KALB Foundation
- Ann & Tom Friedman
- The Global Bridge Foundation
- Addie Guttag
- Hamilton and Traci Hill
- Holzer Family Foundation
- The HOPE Charitable Foundation
- Hopelab
- Candi and Erik Hurst
- Anu and Naveen Jain
- Marshall & Carlyle Jones
- Randy Kaufman
- L.F.H Foundation
- Lamenza Corporation
- The Lampl Family Foundation
- Felipe Medina
- Arch Meredith & Nora Atkinson
- Taylor Milsal & Danny Hillis
- The Dennis and Pamela Mudd Charitable Foundation
- Samuel Nolley and Maureen O'Brien
- Nussey Foundation
- Gerry Ohrstrom
- Bob and Sharon Olwig
- Mr. Warren Packard and Dr. Patricia Chang
- Michael & Sarah Peterson
- Scott M. Pinkus
- Benjamin Ross
- Elizabeth A Sheehan Charitable Fund
- Steve Silberstein
- Solberg MFG
- The Mark & Amy Tercek Foundation
- Visionary Women
- Andrew West & Sylvia Brown
- Anonymous
- Onni Eriksson
- David Kidder
- Una Terra
- Navgeet King Zed
- Anonymous (3)
- Margo Alexander
- Warren & Susan Jason
- Randy Kaufman
- Robert Pierson
- James and Marlene Winker Charitable Trust
- Bain & Company
- Cleary Gottlieb Seen & Hamilton LLP
- EY
- Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP
- Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP
- Paul Hastings LLP
- Posse Herrera Ruiz LLP
- White & Case LLP
- YTL Foundation
Financials
Audited figures will be updated and made available on our website. Since Acumen’s inception in 2001, we have built and evolved our business model that spans innovative programmatic work and manages an extensive investment portfolio of early-stage, mission-aligned enterprises.
These investments are deployed across the capital spectrum, from grants to a range of debt and equity securities. These securities are booked as assets on our balance sheet and therefore do not appear as a part of our program expenses on our financial statements.
Acumen’s approach to financial management and governance is grounded in our commitment to accountability and transparency.
We have established sound internal controls and structures to effectively manage, deploy, and report on the generous commitments from our donors to ensure that we are delivering impact and outcomes in service of our mission.
In 2024, we maintained balance sheet stability and a healthy liquidity profile. Please review Acumen’s Audited Financial Statements for details of our financial performance in past years: acumen.org/financial-overview.
The following are highlights from our preliminary, unaudited 2024 financial results.
Funding sources
- 74% Corporations & Corporate Foundations
- 24% Individuals & Family Foundations
- 1% Foundations and Nonprofits
- 1% Government
Programmatic expenses
- 38% Portfolio operating expenses
- 14% Knowledge sharing
- 12% Leadership (Academy)
- 9% Grants/sub-awards
- 9% Fundraising
- 9% In-kind legal and consulting
- 8% MG&A
Includes $4.5 million in in-kind revenue and expenses
Book value of IUM net of impairments
