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Impact at Acumen CASE STUDY On Off-Grid Energy Prepared for the Impact Management Project Intentions Goals Deliver Understand Re-set INTRODUCTION About this Case Study: The case study profiles Acumen’s investing into off-grid energy, and highlights the value and importance of collecting data across all of the dimensions of impact. It aims to bring the full impact Impact Management Project management process to life from the perspective of an investment manager. Dimensions of Impact: Acumen has been making investments for the past sixteen years to help build financially sustainable organizations that deliver affordable goods and services that improve the lives of the poor. Acumen What outcomes does the have pioneered Lean DataSM an approach to data collection which helps to build more impactful effect relate to, and how businesses by providing them with data on their social performance, customer feedback and important are they? customer behaviour. WHAT This case study illustrates how the data collected helps Acumen and its investees understand which important outcomes (within Acumen’s target themes) the enterprises contribute to, as well as how How significant is the effect? significant the effects are, and how underserved the people are who experience the effects. This data therefore enables Acumen to improve these positive effects. HOW MUCH While impact management is still a work in progress for Acumen, they have made considerable Who experiences the effect, effort to understand which indicators are the best measures with which to track and assess performance against their goals. They have also used this information to re-set their goals and and how underserved are they improve their impact. WHO in relation to the outcome? Acumen also recognizes that their investee enterprises have multiple material effects (positive and negative) on people and planet, and are actively working to better measure and manage these. How does the effect compare Management of these effects (e.g. on employees, community or the industry) is therefore not and contribute to what is covered in this case study. currently available? CONTRIBUTION Acumen is sharing their experience in the hope that sharing some of their impact management practice will encourage greater transparency and collaboration across all organisations seeking to deliver positive impact. How likely is the outcome Any questions? different to the expectation? RISK Please contact: Tom Adams [email protected] or [email protected] 2 Intentions Goals Deliver Understand Re-set PART I: INTENTIONS Acumen was founded with clear intentions Understand “Our intentions express a commitment to act in a certain way. They experience are derived from our values and motivations and inform our impact of people and financial goals.” Impact Management Project and the planet. At Acumen this starts with our driving commitment to listen to the perspectives of the poorest and most marginalised people. We look for companies which are able to make a meaningful contribution to delivering important outcomes for these people. One of the outcome areas we seek to contribute to, examined in detail through this case study, is access to affordable, clean energy across the developing world. Deliver and “Regardless of our intentions, our choices are often limited by certain improve constraints, including legal requirements, the type of organisation we impact. are, our level of wealth or profitability, our location and our demographics.” IMP Acumen raises largely philanthropic capital. This allows us to accept lower “risk-adjusted” returns and invest patient capital. We have a Define Set high tolerance to risk, and look to find promising investments in the intentions financial “pioneer gap”. These are companies that are unable to access and and impact commercial capital they need to grow into viable businesses that will constraints. goals. be sustainable over the long-term. As a consequence we have relatively fewer constraints in our investment model. 3 Intentions Goals Deliver Understand Re-set INTENTIONS Acumen aim to solve the problem of inequitable energy access across the globe. Outcome: clean energy access NEED FOR ENERGY ACCESS Sector: off-grid energy. WHAT Acumen’s intentions: by looking at existing information on energy access, Acumen found that traditional approaches to INCOME HEALTH SUSTAINABILITY closing the energy gap in developing countries - through ~$40bn p.a. spent 4.3 million deaths The substitution of large-scale, grid-based power - were either not working or not on kerosene, equal globally due to solar lighting for all to 20% of all global household air traditional lighting working fast enough. Although 1.7 billion people obtained lighting spend, but pollution (more than would save ~34 connections to electricity between 1990 and 2010, this rate producing only 0.2% HIV/AIDS, TB and million tons of was only slightly ahead of the population growth of 1.6 billion of world’s light. malaria combined). CO2 per year. in the same period. Additionally, those living without electricity connections are often the poorest members of a community. GLOBAL A new solution to providing energy in emerging economies is NEED: needed. LOWEST This information led Acumen to being able to define two MID components of its goals in this theme: WHO and WHAT. HIGHEST Acumen aims to improve the lives of the poor: typically defined by people living on <$3.1 per day (PPP, 2011). Evidence suggests this group is also strongly correlated with those Acumen has since launched its Pioneer Energy Investment Initiative WHO (PEII), an effort to bridge the funding gap in off-grid energy and impact underserved in relation to the outcome of energy access. 8 million people by 2026. 4 Intentions Goals Deliver Understand Re-set CONSTRAINTS By raising philanthropic capital for investment, Acumen can deploy “patient” capital, but is also required to invest in businesses that serve the most underserved people. Type of capital: early stage patient capital; typically equity or quasi-equity. Stage of business: as shown by the graph, higher-risk early stage investment is needed in this sector. Acumen is able to provide this type of capital due to the lack constraints on its financial return. Geographies: East and West Africa, Latin America, and South Asia. Return and time period: payback or exit in roughly 7-10 years per investment. Existing funding is insufficient and concentrated. Only 11% of the World Bank’s 1 total energy access funding for Africa between 2011-2014 went to off-grid renewables. Energy startups in Africa say that they are able to raise only 20% of the funding they need per 2 year. 5 Intentions Goals Deliver Understand Re-set PART II: GOALS We set broad goals to help us learn “If we are creating a new enterprise, or new portfolio of enterprises, Understand our intention guides how we set goals from the very beginning. For experience example, if our intention is to tackle a specific social or of people environmental challenge, we start by analysing available data about and the the cause of the challenge” Impact Management Project planet. On an individual investment level, Acumen’s goal setting combines analysis of external evidence and information, combined with what we have learned from our fifteen plus years of impact investing, To begin with our impact goals were very broad, and we were still testing which were the most appropriate indicators to assess our performance. To ensure we formed a perspective on all dimensions Deliver and of impact we collected multiple pieces of information and over time improve learned what level of performance against which indicators gave us impact. most confidence that our goals (particularly those relating to “what” and the depth element of “how much”) would be sufficiently met. Our application of Lean Data has shown us that whilst using existing evidence is a sensible first approximation of impact, proper Define Set understanding of social performance requires collection of new intentions financial information direct from customers. and and impact constraints. goals. Our goals are continually being informed by our own internally collected and benchmarked data on social performance. 6 Intentions Goals Deliver Understand Re-set ACUMEN’S IMPACT GOALS: TARGET OUTCOMES Acumen sought to collect data to better understand the effects of its businesses within its target thematic areas, and use this information to set quantifiable goals and targets where possible. INTENTIONS CONSTRAINTS IMPACT GOALS FOR TARGET OUTCOMES What outcomes Health, Education, Important Important does the effect Clean energy, Water negative positive relate to, and how Housing, Income WHAT important are they? Marginal Deep effect Depth and For many For few For many How significant is the effect? Short-term Long-term HOW MUCH Long-term Slowly Quickly Rate varies Change the Return of capital way the world Who experiences tackles Flexible holding/ the effect & how Focus on “most Well-served Underserved underserved are underserved” poverty exit period WHO they in relation to the outcome? populations How does the Much worse Much better than effect compare Better than than what is likely what is likely to and contribute to what is likely to occur to occur occur CONTRIBUTIO what is currently anyway N available? How likely that the outcome is Higher risk, due to ability to Low risk High risk different from what spend on new data RISK is expected? collection methods 7 Intentions Goals Deliver Understand Re-set ACUMEN’S IMPACT GOALS: INVESTOR CONTRIBUTION In meeting these impact goals at the business level, Acumen also needed to consider its own contribution to the impact as an investor, which includes how it flexes its financial goals to increase impact. INVESTOR CONTRIBUTION GOALS PROVIDING FLEXIBLE CAPITAL, TO GROW NEW OR UNDER-SUPPLIED CAPITAL MARKETS: By accepting sub-market returns and providing Principal Target: patient capital, Acumen is able to grow Return of capital over 7-10 years. companies which traditional capital would likely Broader Targets: INVESTOR avoid.
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