Acumen Fund

How to reach Acumen

• Use the form on the Grow your business page. Choose India as the region, then your organisation type and sector.
• The form asks you to explain in your own words why your organisation fits its investment criteria. Write to those criteria directly.
• The site lists a Mumbai office address but no public email address for pitches, so the form is the route to use.

Before you apply

• Check that your business serves people living in poverty. The site says it invests in companies that address the needs of people living in poverty, especially vulnerable communities.
• Be ready to show that the business can finance itself beyond Acumen's investment, through follow-on capital or internal cash flows.
• For India, the sectors named are energy, agriculture and workforce or dignified jobs. A company outside these is unlikely to fit.
• The form says it is only accepting solicitations for the selected sectors and regional offices. Check both on the form before you spend time on a long answer.

What to check

• The site does not state fund size, cheque size or a deadline. Ask early what instrument is on offer, as the site lists equity, quasi-equity and debt.
• Acumen uses philanthropic capital and puts impact ahead of financial returns. Confirm how that affects the terms offered to you.

Acumen, formerly known as Acumen Fund, is a global impact investor that describes itself as deploying philanthropic capital to high-innovation, high-impact enterprises that shape markets to break the cycle of poverty. It is not a conventional venture fund: its site says it prioritises impact and long-term financial sustainability over financial returns, and it calls its approach patient capital and venture philanthropy. Its India team has been rooted in Mumbai since 2001, with an office in Andheri West.

For India, the site names three areas of investment: off-grid energy, resilient agriculture and dignity of work. Its Grow your business page says it invests in productive-use energy companies and in farmer-allied agribusinesses, and, in India, in skills-building and decent-work solutions, businesses that formalise informal jobs or create formal ones, and ed-tech for job training. It says it invests across rural, peri-urban and urban populations, with urban communities the main focus in workforce investments and rural communities in energy and agriculture.

On stage, the site says that depending on region, sector and vertical it invests in pre-seed to Series A early-stage social enterprises, using equity, quasi-equity and debt. It looks for potential for social impact among people living in poverty and for financial sustainability, meaning the business can finance itself beyond Acumen's investment through follow-on capital or internal cash flows. It says it often serves as a Board Member or Observer for companies it backs and offers support on impact measurement and financial planning. Past India investees shown on the site include S4S Technologies, Ziqitza Healthcare, Greenway Grameen, Promethean Power Systems and Sitaraa Housing Finance.

The stated way in is a form on the Grow your business page. It asks for your name, email, organisation, region, organisation type (non-profit or for-profit), sector, country of legal entity and, in your own words, why you fit its investment criteria. The form says it is only accepting solicitations for the listed regional offices, which include India, and for the listed sectors: agriculture, education, energy, healthcare and workforce. The site publishes no deadline, no response time and no process steps.