Why was former US President Clinton so impressed with a 33-year old South African businessman he had only recently met? It was the nature of his profit-with-purpose venture.
Andy Kuper had ambitious plans to help transform the lives of hundreds of millions of people in the developing world, to help pull them out of poverty.
And instead of being a charity or non-profit organisation, Leapfrog Investments planned to be very much profit-making and offer its investors a decent rate of return. The idea was to make globalisation and capitalism work for the world’s poorest people.
After a very slow start, the business today has more than $1B (£800M) of funds on its books. It currently invests in 16 companies across 22 countries in Africa and Asia that have a combined 100,000 employees and serve 91 million people.
Companies that Leapfrog invests in and helps run include All Life, a South African insurance firm that gives low cost cover to people with HIV, Kenyan pharmacy chain Goodlife, and India’s Mahindra Insurance Brokers. Andy says that Leapfrog helps the firms see revenues grow by an average 43% per year.
