Acumen

Founded in April, 2001, with capital from the Rockefeller Foundation, Cisco Systems Foundation and three individual philanthropists, Acumen Fund is a non profit global venture fund which fights to solve the problems of global poverty using entrepreneurial approaches. Nowadays, over two thirds of the world's population live in poverty and the fund invests patient capital to identify and scale business models that can serve that population.

While working at the Bank in Brazil, Jacqueline had "an epiphany" as she says. The bank made a $100 million loan to an airline owner who immediately moved the money to the Cayman Islands and she saw all the Brazilian people in the favelas that had no access to capital although they could be very productive. So, three years later, she left the bank and looked for ways to make a bigger difference in the world despite the COO of the Chase Bank's offer to work directly with him.

Currently, she is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and the advisory boards of Stanford Graduate School of Business and the Innovation Journal published by MIT Press. She is also a member of the Aspen Institute Board of Trustees and of the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on Social Innovation.

Jacqueline had the dream of fighting poverty and she believes that if given the opportunity, poor people can produce and consume and solve their own problems. So, in 2001, she started the Acumen fund which would allow philanthropists to invest in businesses that could really change lives instead of giving their money away.

By supporting entrepreneurial people with innovative businesses ideas that adress the poor people and can provide them basic services and products at prices they can afford and help to create jobs and the growth of the economies, Acumen fund seeks to find long term solutions to the poverty problem.