Acumen Capital Partners
Acumen Capital Partners is the wholly owned fund-management arm of impact investor Acumen, based in New York. It runs Acumen's for-profit climate funds, KawiSafi Ventures in off-grid energy and the Acumen Resilient Agriculture Fund (ARAF), whose water exposure runs through Kenyan solar-irrigation company SunCulture. As of September 2025, Acumen announced $90 million in approved capital for KawiSafi Fund II.
Compiled by Antoine Walter, (don't) Waste Water, from official filings and direct intelligence in Leviathan.
The take
Acumen Capital Partners is the engine room behind one of impact investing's better known names. It is the wholly owned arm that Acumen, the New York non-profit founded by Jacqueline Novogratz, uses to structure and run its for-profit climate funds, the side of the house that has to take money from outside investors and hand it back with a return, not simply grant it away.
Acumen Capital Partners runs two funds, and the water angle sits between them. KawiSafi Ventures is a roughly $70 million vehicle wiring off-grid solar across East Africa, and the Acumen Resilient Agriculture Fund (ARAF) is billed as the first equity fund built specifically to make smallholder farmers more resilient to a changing climate. Water surfaces where those theses overlap, in SunCulture, the Kenyan company that sells solar-powered irrigation pumps to farmers who have never had one.
Acumen Capital Partners shows up in my Leviathan database with a deliberately narrow water footprint: a single water company, SunCulture, backed across two rounds. That fits the house style. Water is rarely the goal here; it tends to ride in on the back of bigger bets on energy access and food security for people living on a few dollars a day. A solar pump sells because it moves water onto a field, and the field is the point.
Acumen has not stood still. As of September 2025 it announced $90 million in approved capital for a second KawiSafi fund, and from July 2025 it put investment strategy in the hands of Carsten Stendevad, a former Bridgewater and Danish-pension executive, as President and Chief Investment Officer. For anyone watching where impact money reaches water, the open question is whether that next fund stretches past a single irrigation bet.
Water Commitment Score
Compiled from official filings, third-party records, and direct intelligence from investors and founders, in Leviathan · recomputed monthly · as of Jun 2026.
How they invest
Portfolio · 1 water companies
Invests alongside
Highlighted = profiled on (don't) Waste Water.
Frequently asked
- What is Acumen Capital Partners?
- Acumen Capital Partners is the wholly owned fund-management subsidiary of Acumen, the New York impact investor founded by Jacqueline Novogratz. It structures and runs Acumen's for-profit climate funds: KawiSafi Ventures in off-grid energy and the Acumen Resilient Agriculture Fund in climate-smart farming across Africa.
- What does Acumen Capital Partners invest in?
- Acumen Capital Partners invests through two themed funds: off-grid solar energy via KawiSafi Ventures and climate-resilient agriculture via ARAF. Its water exposure comes through SunCulture, a Kenyan company selling solar-powered irrigation pumps to smallholder farmers across sub-Saharan Africa.
- Who runs Acumen Capital Partners?
- Acumen Capital Partners' funds are led by Tamer El-Raghy, Managing Director of the Acumen Resilient Agriculture Fund, and Amar Inamdar, Managing Director of KawiSafi Ventures. Carsten Stendevad joined as Acumen's President and Chief Investment Officer in July 2025; Jacqueline Novogratz is founder and CEO.
- Is this the same as Acumen Capital Partners in Calgary?
- No. Acumen Capital Partners here is the impact fund-management arm of New York's Acumen. It is a separate organization from Acumen Capital Partners Limited, the independent investment dealer based in Calgary, Canada, which shares the name but is unrelated.
- Where is Acumen Capital Partners based?
- Acumen Capital Partners operates from Acumen's New York headquarters, with fund teams on the ground in Africa, including a Nairobi-based KawiSafi team. Its energy and agriculture funds target East and West Africa, backing companies that serve low-income communities.