Acumen Fund - Pioneer Energy Investment Initiative (PEII)

Acumen launched the $20M Pioneer Energy Investment Initiative (PEII) to invest in, support, scale, and learn from innovative energy companies over the next three years. The PEII aims to reach 8 million people by 2026 with energy access. Acumen expects the PEII portfolio to attract at least 5X the capital it invest from other capital providers to help scale viable new models. The focus areas of PEII are two: Energy generation (Solar home systems in new markets Solar & hybrid mini-grids) and Energy usage (Innovations for energy use). Acumen will have the flexibility to invest across each pillar’s value chain, including product and service companies as well as technological enablers (i.e. PAYGO, metering, etc.) and financial enablers.Acumen’s pioneer capital will not be applied within certain capex-heavy portions of the value chain (i.e. R&D). The criteria of PEII are the following: 1. Affordable solutions targeted at the poor 2. Primarily leverage solar technology 3. Aligned with the key insights from acumen’s past investments 4. Solutions which are a destination risque; for energy access, not a bridge to the grid