Job Title: East Africa Short Term Associate, Nairobi, Kenya
Portfolio - Nairobi, Kenya - Temporary
Acumen is looking for two short term associates to work in our East Africa office. This is an outstanding opportunity for individuals with a few years of work experience, a higher degree, exceptional energy, and commitment to global development to help grow our investment portfolios.
Acumen
Acumen started as an idea. 11 years later we have a proven model that combines the best of charity and investing to change the way the world tackles poverty.
Acumen is a non-profit venture fund with a vision to help build a world beyond poverty through investing in companies that deliver critical goods and services in water, health, housing, energy, agriculture, and education; leaders who are paving the way for new approaches to fighting poverty; and the spread of ideas that will give the world the knowledge and the understanding to change how the world tackles poverty.
Passion, entrepreneurial spirit, and commitment to tackling the issue of global poverty are just a few of the things that the staff at Acumen have in common. What we aim to accomplish with our work is no easy task, and we need dedicated, high-caliber people to reach our goals.
Acumen has invested more than $85 million of patient capital in more than 70 social enterprises in South Asia, East Africa and West Africa that have collectively served more than 100 million customers. We have teams on the ground in India, Pakistan, Kenya, Ghana, and New York, and we aim to build strong local structures that are deeply interconnected to the global organization through shared goals.
East Africa
Acumen's commitment to East Africa began in 2004. Today, we have over $17.6 million in approved investments and 12 portfolio companies across healthcare, energy, water & sanitation, agricultural and education. Portfolio companies like M-Kopa, Sanergy, and Virtual City, are revolutionizing their sectors and pioneering new development paradigms. The office is staffed with a full-time team of professionals from diverse backgrounds including investment banking, venture capital, management consulting, law, and accounting.
Acumen East Africa is well-resourced, has a strong foundation, and is ready to take our mission to the next level. Core to our success is the ability to identify, resource, and build a world class portfolio that demonstrates the power of patient capital to solve the problems of poverty in India and the world more broadly. Equally important is to leverage our experience into insights that compel this ecosystem of funders, operators, and policy makers to catalyze a broader paradigm shift in the battle against poverty.
See who is talking about us, here.
Position Description
Acumen East Africa will hire two short term Associates to help analyze new markets within our portfolios, develop tools for benchmarking new pipeline, perform due diligence, document market research and enable knowledge sharing.
These associates will be able to use their business skills in researching and analyzing organizations, producing sector strategies and will get practical insights into a new approach in social investing. The business analysis will focus primarily in four portfolio areas:
• Health – invests in technology that presents an opportunity to profoundly alter market dynamics in the healthcare landscape of the developing world.
• Agriculture – invests in self-sustaining, scalable enterprises that focus on both supply of inputs for agriculture, and on broader financial innovations that provide economic access to the poor.• Water – invests capital and management support in financially sustainable and scalable enterprises that make safe and sufficient water accessible to the poor.• Energy – invests capital and management support in financially sustainable and scalable enterprises that make renewable energy options accessible to the poor.
Acumen also provides hands-on management support to enterprises in its portfolios, and short term associates are also asked to assist with specific projects addressing management challenges of portfolio companies. Some deliverables in the past have included financial models, competitor analyses, marketing strategies, and an exploration of export opportunities.
Responsibilities;
The Short Term Associate will work with a Portfolio Lead to:
Conduct relevant market research/sector mapping depending on the portfolio you will work with.
Screen early stage pipeline against Acumen Fund's due diligence checklist.
Collect, organize and analyze data from existing operations to determine key trends and drivers for company performance.
Analyze a potential investment to develop a growth strategy, and identify the risks and mitigants therein.
Support internal staff in the drafting of internal documents such as Acumen's investment memos and building financial models.
Support internal staff in developing the portfolio of investments that Acumen Fund will consider funding
Work with internal staff to provide post investment support our existing investments.
Qualifications & Characteristics
Candidates with a graduate-level degree or similar
Experience in financial analysis and modeling, particularly in venture capital or private equity
Management consulting experience• Commitment to Acumen's mission
International work experience
Academic training or work experience focused on health, water, agriculture, or energy
Ability to take initiative with research and analysis and conduct work on their own• Capacity to work with a team in different countries/cultures
Capability to present investment ideas in memoranda to senior management and advisors
Additional characteristics we're looking for in all roles at Acumen:
Commitment to, and enthusiasm for, the organization's mission and business model, and respect for our core values: generosity, accountability, humility, audacity, listening, leadership, integrity, respect
Moral Imagination:
The humility to see the world as it is, and the audacity to imagine the world as it could be. It also includes but is not limited to the following:
o Displaying high level of empathy in all relationships and encounters
o Possessing deep self-awareness and ability to identify own strengths and weaknesses
o Actively listening and focusing on hearing what others are saying
Good understanding of financial concepts and our investing model
Solid operational skills including problem solving and project management skills, including ability to work and deliver projects independently, proactively and under pressure
Effectively collaborates with and across teams, seeks and provides constructive feedback
Exceptional relationship and interpersonal skills: courtesy, tact, patience and strong team orientation
Strong communication skills and ability to be a “storyteller†of our work
Ability to thrive when there is ambiguity, remain cool-headed when there are curve balls, and withstand the tests of a rapidly changing environment with resilience and resolve
Curious - always questioning, always probing, and never blindly accepting
A sense of humor (really)
How to Apply:
http://acumenfund.theresumator.com/apply/jobs/details/4Cyv09?
Deadline: 15/08/2013.
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