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Funding

How Blended Capital Can Electrify 700 Million Lives

September 18, 2025

3 Min Read

Solar infrastructure illustrating how impact-driven capital can close the energy gap.

Photo by Gabriel on Unsplash

Why it Matters

Nearly 700 million people still live without electricity—85% in Africa alone. Traditional aid is declining, but Acumen's Hardest-to-Reach Fund offers a blueprint for how blended capital can solve this "biggest planetary market failure of our lifetime."


The Big Picture

Acumen has assembled 24 diverse investors for its $250 million energy access fund, proving that the right incentive structure can attract everyone from philanthropists to South Korea's largest commercial bank.


What's Happening

The fund targets 17 countries where electrification rates remain shockingly low—places like Chad, Malawi, and Burundi that commercial investors typically avoid.


How it Works

  • First-loss protection: The Green Climate Fund provides catalytic capital to de-risk investments

  • Impact incentives: A $20 million "rebate" system reduces interest payments for companies that exceed energy access targets

  • Commercial participation: Shinhan Bank and other commercial players join alongside philanthropic funders

  • Local empowerment: Supporting African entrepreneurs building "systems of, by and for Africans"

The Numbers

After 24 years, Acumen is tripling its assets under management to $750 million. The energy fund is paired with a $300 million climate adaptation fund for smallholder farmers—one of the world's largest adaptation strategies.


What They're Saying

"Climate finance is not scarce. It's scared," says Acumen founder Jacqueline Novogratz. "Risk is not just a financial concept. It's a social concept, an environmental concept, and it is a moral concept."


The Bottom Line

Acumen's model proves that with the right incentive structures, private capital will flow to the world's hardest-to-reach communities. As Novogratz puts it: "What's the risk of not daring?"


What's Next

The organization recently recruited Carsten Stendevad from Ray Dalio's $92 billion Bridgewater Associates as president and chief investment officer, signaling serious institutional backing for impact-first investing.


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