Acumen
VC Fund
New York, United States
Acumen is a nonprofit venture fund that invests in early-stage companies bringing critical services like agriculture, clean energy, education, financial inclusion, healthcare and workforce development to low-income communities in 14 countries across East and West Africa, South Asia, Latin America, and the United States. Since 2001, Acumen invested $128 million in 128 companies that have transformed the lives of over 308 million low-income people.
- Total investments:
- 209
- Last investment:
- Lead investor:
- 46%
- Fund size:
- $123M
- Last fund:
Last updated:
For AI agents: llms.txt
Industries Acumen invests in
Stages Acumen invests in
Countries Acumen invests in
Round sizes
Contacts
| Name | Phone | Socials | |
|---|---|---|---|
| See all 34 contacts → | |||
Round size
- Seed
- $300k–$2.5M
- Venture - Series Unknown
- $1000k–$7.4M
Investment Focus
Industry
- Agriculture 33 (16%)
- Solar 24 (11%)
- Farming 22 (11%)
- Financial Services 22 (11%)
- Health Care 20 (10%)
Stage
- Seed 53 (25%)
- Venture - Series Unknown 46 (22%)
- Funding Round 28 (13%)
- Series A 24 (11%)
- Debt Financing 13 (6%)
Country
- United States 41 (20%)
- India 38 (18%)
- Kenya 19 (9%)
- Nigeria 10 (5%)
- Colombia 9 (4%)
Team
| Name | Title | Investments | Links | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Adekemi Ajayi
Regional Director, West Africa
|
Regional Director, West Africa | Total investments: 2 | Find email | |
Carsten Stendevad
President and CIO
|
President and CIO | Total investments: 1 | Find email | |
Veenu Aulakh
Director
|
Director | Total investments: 2 | Find email | |
Ajit Mahadevan
Country Director
|
Country Director | Total investments: 3 | Find email | |
Amon Anderson
Director
|
Director | Total investments: 7 | Find email | |
| See all 34 team members → | ||||
Investments
| Company | Description | Round | Links |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Greenlight Planet Zambia
|
Greenlight Planet is the Zambian country-level subsidiary of Sun King.It is a leading multinational, for-profit off-grid solar energy company that designs, distributes, installs, and finances affordable solar solutions for households and businesses that lack reliable access to the traditional electrical grid. | $5M / Venture - Series Unknown / Sep 23, 2026 | |
| MyJouleBox offers a solution for solar professionals in Africa to offer leased solar installations to their customers. | $7.4M / Venture - Series Unknown / Apr 10, 2026 | ||
| We are Africa's first poultry-only platform using technology to boost local poultry production and supply chain by facilitating access to quality Input, advisory and production services, finance, and a guaranteed market for poultry farmers in Africa. | Seed / Apr 10, 2026 | ||
| Instollar is solar energy workforce provider in the region. | Seed / Apr 09, 2026 | ||
| Mountain Harvest produces Arabica coffee, working with local farmers to improve coffee quality and support sustainable farming practices. The company focuses on enhancing farmers' income opportunities and environmental sustainability. It offers education and internships in quality assurance, processing, and agronomy. Mountain Harvest alsocollaborates with academic institutions on research related to coffee production and quality. | Venture - Series Unknown / Apr 07, 2026 | ||
| The mission of Omia Agribusiness Development is to provide African farmers with the tools they need to achieve maximum productivity, profitability, and sustainability. | Convertible Note / Mar 26, 2026 | ||
| AgroEknor provides agricultural research, integration, technology based optimization & global delivery of the agro superfoods. | Venture - Series Unknown / Feb 06, 2026 | ||
| ScrapUncle is an App/Website that allows users to schedule a doorstep pickup for their Junk goods such as Paper, Metals, Plastics, Electronic Waste and get paid for it. | $2.4M / Seed / Jan 27, 2026 | ||
| Vitara provide tools that enable traceability, real-time data insights, conservation monitoring, farmer payments | Venture - Series Unknown / Jan 09, 2026 | ||
| Loom Craft Chocolate is a artisanal cocoa processor with a strong focus on the quality of our products and the sustainability of our processes. | Venture - Series Unknown / Aug 22, 2025 | ||
| See all 209 investments → | |||
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FAQ
What does Acumen invest in?
Acumen invests primarily in Agriculture, Solar and Farming startups, most often at Seed and Venture - Series Unknown stage. Most of the 209 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in United States. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.
What round sizes does Acumen invest in?
Acumen typically joins rounds of $300k–$2.5M at Seed and $1000k–$7.4M at Venture - Series Unknown. These are whole funding-round sizes, not Acumen's own check, which is rarely disclosed: the 10th–90th percentile of the confirmed public funding rounds Acumen took part in.
How do I contact Acumen?
Public channels for Acumen include LinkedIn, X (Twitter) and the website linked on this profile. For a verified work email and phone number, create a free Shizune account — contact data is searched across 20+ sources and validated before delivery, so your outreach lands in the right inbox.
Who are the partners at Acumen?
The team at Acumen includes Adekemi Ajayi (Regional Director, West Africa), Carsten Stendevad (President and CIO) and Veenu Aulakh (Director), among 34 team members tracked by Shizune. The Team section lists each member with their title, investment count and links.
Is Shizune's investor data accurate?
Yes — every stat on this profile is calculated from confirmed public funding rounds monitored across hundreds of sources since 2020. This profile was last refreshed in Oct 2026 and is updated monthly. Spotted something off? Use the “Suggest an edit” link near the top of the page.
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